Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe

[Matt Molnar]

Fired engineer calls 787's plastic fuselage unsafe

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

By Dominic Gates
Seattle Times aerospace reporter

A former senior aerospace engineer at Boeing's Phantom Works research unit, fired last year under disputed circumstances, is going public with concerns that the new 787 Dreamliner is unsafe.

Forty-six-year veteran Vince Weldon contends that in a crash landing that would be survivable in a metal airplane, the new jet's innovative composite plastic materials will shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes. He backs up his views with e-mails from engineering colleagues at Boeing and claims the company isn't doing enough to test the plane's crashworthiness.

Boeing vigorously denies Weldon's assertions, saying the questions he raised internally were addressed to the satisfaction of its technical experts.

Weldon's allegations will be aired tonight by Dan Rather, the former CBS News anchor, on his weekly investigative show on cable channel HDNet. More...

[mirrodie]

Not sure what to believe.

In the one sense, the claim seems to make sense. However, I doubt Boeing would blow 677 orders over such a major allegation.

[nikon50bigma]

With the plastic fusalage the toxic fumes does seem possible.
But since it is composite, it is lighter in weight and better for the envirorment.

[Matt Molnar]

Materials engineers say Rather's story is "very misleading" and shows a "lack of grounding in science."

Dan Rather Makes Questionable Case Against Science Behind Boeing Dreamliner
By Aaron Rowe
September 19, 2007 | 7:39:52 PM

By taking a cheap shot at Boeing, Dan Rather may be headed for a comeback less graceful than Britney Spears' performance at the MTV Music Awards.

On the most recent edition of his new show, he reported on Tuesday that the new 787 Dreamliner aircraft may be unsafe. Since then, dozens of news agencies have jumped on the bandwagon. Most of them are reporting that the carbon fiber frame may not be as safe as aluminum. Few have bothered to question Rather's claims that the composite materials are brittle, more likely to shatter on impact, and prone to emit poisonous chemicals when ignited.

I haven't yet watched the segment, but I have read the full transcript [doc]. As a researcher trained materials engineering, I consider the written summaries that appeared in the news today to be very misleading.

While there is a lot of weight behind the argument that composite materials are not as well-studied as aircraft aluminum, the reasoning behind the flurry of recent articles may be faulty. First off, if a plane crashes, the composite frame will definitely not be the only source of toxic fumes. Second, high performance composites have been used in fighter aircraft and for years. Sports cars, race cars, and train cars made from composite materials have endured fantastic crashes. Claims that the impact toughness of carbon fiber is inadequate may be premature. More...

[MORS-AB-ALTO]

With the plastic fusalage the toxic fumes does seem possible.

Jet fuel makes aluminum burn and the resulting smoke isn't any less deadly.