Originally Posted by
edmundronald
If management tells you to take off with an unfixed tech issue which you consider potentially hazardous, do you do it?
I wouldnt design a single sensor control loop in an aero control application THAT ISNT SANITY CHECKED because it would possibly be considered criminal negligence. Just look at a computer mouse to see the possible failures, starting with connector disconnection, connector corrosion, wire failure, contamination and mechanical failures of the actual sensor, boards growing solder whiskers, component failure on the sensor board etc.
Sensor failures are just a question of when rather than if. However the INS data on the 737, and probably other data, can be used to sanity check the AoA sensor.
Look at what happens when a pitot or static port gets blocked - will that be safe if it is a single sensor?
Edmund
No disagreement on the fact that it is a negligent, dodgy, hazardous design.
As an engineer I will always raise my concerns and make sure that they are documented somewhere. And this is probably one reason why I am more "Joe" than "boss".
However when told to go ahead with a certain design by superiors I have to and will do - although I might disagree. Just imagine I'd do something on my own account and something would go wrong either economy or safety related. Now I'd be really in trouble.
Changing job's is always a cheap recommendation. Easier said than executed when you have a family and a life - it took me several years to leave such toxic venture.
BA and FAA had appropriate processes in place to prevent these things happening. They were ravished. Willfully. For commercial reasons. This does not happen on engineering level.