New answers tagged airliner
2
As you can see, the supply chain is big (with filters and water separators at various points). The short answer is that standards and quality checks are followed.
As for the jetliners, as far as I know they can't detect the fuel quality, but some can alert if issues arise in the fuel filters. The certification standards focus on engine restart capability ...
1
Regarding power cycling specifically (as opposed to software-based failures in general which other answers have detailed very well), it's not a problem at all. Unlike a typical PC or smartphone which takes time to turn back on and can lose data when power is lost, the control systems on an airplane are typically designed such that they will resume complete ...
0
Reboots can also sometimes be acceptable if you can reboot quickly without losing critical information. This occurred as part of the Apollo 11 landing when they had the 1202 alarm:
He realized that the 1202 was a code meaning that the guidance
computer on-board the landing craft was getting overloaded with tasks.
The programmers had anticipated this ...
4
as somebody who did software tests on an unimportant (class D, will explain soon) system for an airplane to be approved to be landed on civilian airports: In airplane there is a strict hierarchy on what kind of software functions mean; they are listed in DO-178B.
Class A systems are assumed to be "failure free"; they are extremely well tested. These ...
4
Occasionally a computer or smartphone will crash and reboot itself
This can happen for two reasons: a software error or a hardware error. Both can cause the CPU to stop processing new instructions (i.e. a "hang") or to cause the machine to reboot itself. The latter is close to a hang, because the Operating System detects it cannot continue operating ...
24
Before we start, it's important to say that your concern is not irrational. If this were to happen, or if your plane's control systems were to otherwise malfunction in a dangerous manner, your life would genuinely be in danger.
You aren't the first person to have thought of this, though. For this reason, we have a category of control systems we describe ...
66
I'm a programmer and private pilot, so maybe I can help dispel some of those fears.
The computers that run a commercial airplane are conceptually much simpler than the one that runs your phone. This means far less chance of a bug in the software, just because there's less for the programmer to keep track of.
If your phone restarts, it doesn't imperil ...
10
Your concerns are reasonable and justified. A mid-air shutdown or reboot would be catastrophic to an airliner. Which is why, engineers designed the systems such that this scenario is practically impossible to happen.
Electrical power
An airliner has multiple electrical power source. Each jet engine has a built-in generator. When the turbine spins, ...
0
Please tell your instructor from myself, another flight instructor, that he is, to put it delicately, completely full of sh*t.
Here's the thing about flying an aircraft. It encompasses a wide range of skills and abilities which will highlight your strengths and weaknesses as a human being. A student pilot may be quite skilled with flying, say, steep turns,...
Top 50 recent answers are included
