On Wed, 14 Jan 2004 01:46:31 -0800 "C J Campbell" wrote:


"R.Hubbell" wrote in message |
|
| They did a reasonable job of recreating the environment but we all know
| how hostile things are at 35,000 and 600 mph and -35 degrees, where air is
| less dense.
|
|
| So the question is would any of us be willing to head up to 35,000, crank
her
| up to mach .76 and get out the Glock and let loose a few rounds??
|
| Also suppose the bullet hits some wiring or hydraulics or fuel line, etc.

The air pressure in an airliner is less than one atmosphere, no matter what.
At 35,000 feet you are talking half an atmosphere. Compare that to the tires
in your car. The airliner produces all of 8 lbs psi, less than a third of
the inflation of an automobile tire. All of this other stuff, 600 mph or
slight variations of air pressure along the fuselage, etc., is minuscule.

Mythbusters gave the hyperventilating pants wetters a bit of a reality
check -- and all they can talk about are minor factors that will not change
the results in any significant way. I don't care if you empty the entire
magazine into a window, you are not going to suck people out of the
airplane, the airplane is not going to go into some kind of dive, people are
not going to fly all over the interior of the airplane, the seats are not
going to be ripped from the floor, or any other Hollywood bull**** like
that.




You still didn't answer the question though. Will you take a plane up
to mach .76, get out your Glock and fire some rounds off through the cabin
floor, walls, ceiling or any other random place? If a skymarshal is wrestling
someone hell bent on getting his gun the bullets would firing at all angles
in all directions.


There are simply too many factors that mythbusters didn't replicate
to convince me that it's safe to fire 9mm rounds through a fuselage
of an aircraft traveling mach .76 at 35,000 ft. where it's -35 degrees.

There's something else that comes to mind as well. I was reading a report
on the HA (Hawai'i Airlines) accident and they talked about the concussive
force that caused the large hole to open up. What happens is similar to
water-hammer in water supply lines. The hole has air rushing out thru it
at some very high rate then some object from the aircraft plugs the hole.
Suddenly all the air destined for the hole backs up behind that object
and that generates an extreme and instantaneous amount of force on just
that spot. Guess what happens next? A bigger hole appears and if it's not
big enough it will get blocked again and we have a repeat of the previous
concussive event. Until the hole is bigger than all loose objects.

I can't find that site, someone posted it here a while back.



R. Hubbell