Valkyrie Vision
05
Feb
For Whom The Whistle Blows
A mid-cabin door plug blew out of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 on January 5 because it was removed at Boeing, to rectify faulty work by fuselage supplier Spirit, and improperly reinstalled. The bolts that hold the plug in position against its stops - as the latch mechanism...
28
Jan
The Cartman Gambit
"Screw you guys, I'm going home".
I have been working on a root-cause analysis of the F-35 project. As I got deeper into the subject, I realized that the impact of decisions taken in the early 1990s was not only colossal but largely unintentional.
22
Jan
Dreamland Life
The last big book on Area 51 was written in 2011 by Annie Jacobsen, previously best known for throwing a case of the screaming abdabs over some Syrian musicians on a 2004 Northwest Airlines flight. It would never have gotten past an agent but for the sensational ending,...
18
Jan
Honestly, You Don’t Look A Day Over Block 30
50 years ago on Saturday, January 20, 1974, the first General Dynamics YF-16 made its famously unscheduled first flight from Edwards AFB. On a high-speed taxi test, the YF-16 started oscillating in roll, scraping the stabilizer and left-hand dummy missile on the runway, and pilot Phil Oestricher decided...
13
Jan
The Myth Of Old Boeing
A door blew out of a brand-new Boeing 737 MAX 9, and fingers are being pointed at the company's apparent lapse in quality inspection, and at Boeing's cost-cutting and focus on shareholder value as a root cause. Not without good reason: suppliers like Spirit, spun off in 2005...
01
Oct
F-35 And Cognitive Dissonance
Doubt that anyone wants to hear my opinions on the F-35 yet, but I'd like to point out some facts that induce cognitive dissonance.
There's no doubt that the F-35 has enjoyed a run of market success, particularly across NATO, leading some to call it...