tinerj
Cleared for Takeoff
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- Jul 1, 2012
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- tinerj
Video Cameras
I watch that show 30 seconds to disaster and a lot of them are about aircraft crashes. Here are some actual examples that resulted in crashes with fatalities:
Pilot, "Got a funny reading here, ask the steward to shine a flashlight on the right engine and see if he can detect anything amiss."
Or, shortly after take off "What was that thump? Looks like we've lost some power. POH calls for going to Vy." The plane is flying faster than Vy, so the pilot noses up, causing the speed to reduce to Vy, and the plane falls out of the sky because the left engine has fallen off and taken part of the wing with it.
Or, the passengers notice oil, smoke, and flames coming from the left engine, but the pilots, for some reason think it is the right engine, and they shut down the right engine. The plane continues to produce power with the bad left engine although it loses altitude and it eventually crashes.
Or a plane with retractable gear has to fly by the tower and let them radio if the landing gear is down.
Or, a tail dragger warbird that has limited forward visibility overruns a small plane as fly-in attendees leave an air show.
Here's my question. Haven't the aircraft manufactures heard of video cameras? They spend millions on a multitude of instruments, when a few button-sized video cameras would be useful, too. Why not sprinkle those small video cameras all around the airplane showing each engine front and back, the landing gear, the passenger compartment, baggage area, above decks, etc. The pilot could select the area of interest, or let the cameras cycle through.
Here in St. Louis, a home builder installed forward, rear, and straight down cameras on his four place airplane. Do any of the multi-million-dollar airliners have video cameras to aid the pilot?
I watch that show 30 seconds to disaster and a lot of them are about aircraft crashes. Here are some actual examples that resulted in crashes with fatalities:
Pilot, "Got a funny reading here, ask the steward to shine a flashlight on the right engine and see if he can detect anything amiss."
Or, shortly after take off "What was that thump? Looks like we've lost some power. POH calls for going to Vy." The plane is flying faster than Vy, so the pilot noses up, causing the speed to reduce to Vy, and the plane falls out of the sky because the left engine has fallen off and taken part of the wing with it.
Or, the passengers notice oil, smoke, and flames coming from the left engine, but the pilots, for some reason think it is the right engine, and they shut down the right engine. The plane continues to produce power with the bad left engine although it loses altitude and it eventually crashes.
Or a plane with retractable gear has to fly by the tower and let them radio if the landing gear is down.
Or, a tail dragger warbird that has limited forward visibility overruns a small plane as fly-in attendees leave an air show.
Here's my question. Haven't the aircraft manufactures heard of video cameras? They spend millions on a multitude of instruments, when a few button-sized video cameras would be useful, too. Why not sprinkle those small video cameras all around the airplane showing each engine front and back, the landing gear, the passenger compartment, baggage area, above decks, etc. The pilot could select the area of interest, or let the cameras cycle through.
Here in St. Louis, a home builder installed forward, rear, and straight down cameras on his four place airplane. Do any of the multi-million-dollar airliners have video cameras to aid the pilot?
