Originally Posted by
airsupport
I still honestly think that if any serviceable Airliner (that is no faulty components or weakened structure) can be brought down PURELY by mechanically allowable (whether normal or not) Pilot inputs then it should NOT be flying.
I repeat Mad (Flt) Scientists reply from earlier, which you've apparently missed - or maybe you're wilfully ignoring:
Originally Posted by Mad (Flt) Scientist)
You just grounded every single aircraft flying
Once again, severe enough pilot inputs will cause catastrophic damage to every aircraft out there. There's no doubt about that; the only variable is the degree of severity required, but push them hard enough and they all will break.
*caveat: except POSSIBLY FBW-envelope protected types *cough*Airbus*cough* - but even those may not be fully immune. We don't design aircraft to be flown in a carefree manner, generally, and never in a careless manner.
I'd be tempted to be more specific and say that you'd be grounding every
airliner out there, but his point still stands. Have a look at the first few pages of this article:
http://www.flyingmag.com/article.asp...article_id=527
Va (AKA Manouevering Speed) has been a fact of life for pilots for decades - although it was primarily concerned with structural integrity involving wings and horizontal stabilisers, the vertical stab was apparently not originally considered in these calculations.
The simple fact is that your criteria, i.e. being able to rip the vertical stabiliser off through pilot action alone - are applicable to pretty much every large transport-category aircraft currently flying, be they Boeing, Airbus, Tupolev... whatever.