Detached cabin will not be able to save your life when the plane crashed

It is not unreasonable that aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus have not yet launched an aircraft that can separate the passenger cabin from the head and wing.

In recent days, the online community has continuously shared a video showing the idea of ​​a passenger cabin separated from the fuselage in case of an accident. This idea, made by a Ukrainian inventor, allows the passenger compartment to safely land with parachutes and engines on the ground, helping to ensure passengers' lives even in the case of wings and dynamics. aircraft engine problems.

Video about the cabin separately.

Unfortunately, this highly praised solution for netizens will not help to improve safety when flying significantly. In the following article published in the Register, Professor Herve Morvan, Head of Applied Mechanics, the Institute of Aeronautics and the University of Nottingham will provide insightful analysis of the idea of ​​a passenger cabin separated from aircraft. .

Even if the price factor is not taken into account, the use case of a separate cabin solution is also very limited. The author of this idea said the use of a separate cabin will be when the engine has engine trouble. However, the number of aircraft crashed because of engine problems is very rare: in the past 10 years, the number of aircraft problems and system malfunctions accounted for less than 3% of the total number of fatal plane accidents. people. From the beginning, the applicability of this idea was very low.

The separated cabin is also difficult to save other passengers' lives.

As you probably already know, aircraft are most at risk during takeoff and landing or when traveling at low speeds (and therefore harder to control) . According to data from Boeing, about three-quarters of the deaths from aircraft falling from 2005 to 2014 belong to these stages of the flight.

But in these cases, the detachable cabin is also difficult to save the lives of other passengers. The distance is too short from the ground to the plane, which makes the pilot unable to drop the passenger compartment when the incident occurs. Even in the case of successful separation, the aircraft cabin will most likely fall into an area with many buildings near the airport.

The number of deaths due to accidents during the flight journey during the past 10 years is 1000 people. In theory, the journey will be the stage where the idea of ​​detached cabin can be most effective. However, in fact, 80% of plane crashes are caused by human error, the most common being losing control of aircraft or hitting surfaces . If the pilot has lost control of the aircraft, or when the aircraft is about to hit the cliff, the separated passenger cabin cannot save the lives of those on the plane.

When both engines were lost, the Sullenberger could still save the entire passenger life without the need for a separate cabin.

So in the case of pilots can calmly react to separate the cabin? Let's take the example of US Airways 1549, when pilot Chesley B Sullenberger was forced to land the A320 in the Hudson River in New York, after the plane crashed both engines by colliding with a swarm of geese. Even if manufacturers cannot prepare for all of the accident situations, the engines have been tested for situations where birds are sucked into the engine and "survived" through these cases, at least is within a few minutes. Even in the case of losing an engine, the aircraft can still take off with the other engine.

In the case of flight 1549, the crew had unfortunately lost both engines, but at low altitudes (just took off) the detached cabin design would be useless. Even if the cabin is successfully separated, the possibility of this cabin colliding with buildings in the city is also huge. Finally, Captain Sullenberger successfully landed the A320 down the nearby river. Although there is no separation, the pilot can still solve a serious incident while flying.

The production of an integral-detachable mechanism for the passenger cabin is also not easy. Engineers will have to find some way to help the cabin be able to securely attach to the head and wing of the aircraft under normal conditions but can still be detached easily when an incident occurs. This mechanism will also push maintenance costs very high.

Next, the separated cabin system will also increase the weight of the aircraft. For aircraft, weight is an important factor , affecting both control and operating costs (especially fuel costs).

The idea of ​​a detached cabin is not only too expensive, but also has no practical use.

In fact, the system separate the cabin from the fuselage has been launched for a long time. After the shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986, designers of Europe's shuttle shuttle Hermes program have studied a similar system to ensure space safety for astronauts, but at the end the cost of the system was too expensive, as well as the negative impact on the shuttle's carrying capacity made the whole Hermes program fail.

Recently, at the end of 2015, Airbus also registered a patent "Aircraft Pod": a plane when it landed at an airport that separates the passenger compartment to immediately attach to a passenger / cargo compartment. other. The main idea behind this design is to use the cost savings when reducing waiting time to pay for fuel costs incurred, rather than to separate the cabin to save passengers' lives in the itinerary. . Currently, the Aircraft Pod is only at the idea level.

In short, no matter how disappointed you are, the idea of ​​detached passenger cabins when an aircraft has an accident will be impossible and unreasonable at this time. In return, passengers can still be assured that the airline industry is still improving its safety.