Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 11:33:00 -0700
From: weavermt@YAHOO.COM (Tim Weaver)
Subject: No bang, just whistling noise
To: AZRKBA@asu.edu


As did your second favorite member of the Cartridge Family Band, Craig
Linsay (argue amongst yourselves who's the first....)


http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opinions/articles/1012breakout121.html

No bang, just whistling noise
Oct. 12, 2001

Regarding the letter last Friday by Hugh Dunne ("Stay off my airplane"):

From Mr. Dunne's perspective, it is blatantly obvious that explosive
decompression from gunfire at 30,000 feet is a disastrous fact of physics.
Unfortunately for Mr. Dunne, it is also an urban legend created by
Hollywood.

Pilots and engineers agree that gunfire piercing the fuselage at 30,000
feet would have one effect on the aircraft - it would create a whistling
noise. That's right - a whistling noise. No explosion. No hapless
passengers being sucked out of the aircraft.

An aircraft has "holes" designed into it already - they are called otflow
valves. For example, an aircraft such as a Boeing 737 has two such "holes"
- the back valve can be adjusted in size, up to 20 inches square, and the
front valve is five inches in diameter.

Do you want to confirm this for yourself? Simply call your favorite
airline, and speak with their maintenance or engineering staff. There is
no debate about this issue in the industry.

What we have here is an electorate that is trying to judge critical policy
decisions based upon what they have seen at the movies! It's high time the
adults in our society started speaking up, and insisting on a dose of
reality in discussions on allowing guns in aircraft.

Craig C. Lindsay
Paradise Valley



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