EeeeeeeeWWWWWW! Boeing appears to be a bit touchy about this one!
The pilot's union? The PILOT's union?? Somehow ALPA is responsible for the design of a rudder PCU? Nah, doubt it.
And cameras would have fixed it? Hey man, Boeing owns 737's..put some cameras on those dudes and fly, fly, fly, fly, fly!
I personally don't have a problem with cameras. The well WAS poisoned by the CVR <cockpit voice recorder> however. That DAM PILOT'S UNION had a promise from the FAA and the NTSB that the recordings AND text would _never_ be released to the press.
That promise has NEVER been made good. You think how your family would feel (after your untimely demise) when some of the things you've said to buddies as jokes or things you said under extreme stress were suddenly in the headlines across the nation.
If the Feds had the integrity to honor the CVR promise, the cameras probably would have been a slam dunk install. But they didn't.
So who's to blame here?
On another note....
Let's see. The first USAF tankers HAD no powered rudder, and water injection was paired to single generators. So, on T/O, water injection to 1&2 were on Gen 1 and 3&4 were on Gen 2 or something like that. So, when u lost Gen 1 or Gen 2, (and they would trip at -.2 Neg G, so a good bump in the runway could do it), you lost all water injection on one side and with no powered rudder, just leg, to counter the yaw. At max gross weight, (standard "practice for war" takeoffs) off the side of the runway or a crash was a real strong possibility.
Eventually, when enough good men died in huge fireballs, they put on a powered rudder and split the water injection into symmetrical pairs as they should have done to begin with. (no doubt the USAF pilot's union held this up as well
)
Unfortunately this rudder PCU unit had a problem. Seems it liked to go hard over. When enough good men died in flaming fireballs, they put in a powered rudder cutoff switch on the center console.
Since the USAF did the testing, these changes were part of the 707 line when it started (the tanker was actually called the 717, even though it predated the 707 I think). So, the 707 avoided most of these rudder problems.
Don't tell me, however, that there isn't a history of rudder pcu problems. The 737 is not the same pcu but has problems in the same area (hardovers), IMHO.
Now, that being said, Boeing, ANY Boeing (OK, the stuff they bought from McD is NOT Boeing) is my first choice of aircraft.
Boeing is the best transport airplane builder in the world. I love 'em. Belts and suspenders engineering, always have a backup.
They bring ya home when things go to sh*t..usually
But to pretend that there isn't a rudder problem...
To place the blame on the pilot's union....
Lol!
[This message has been edited by Toad (edited 03-02-2000).]
