Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety Essay

Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety - Essay Example The first flight lasted 12 sec, but later flights on the same day were a little longer; a safe landing was made after each attempt. The machine was a biplane (an airplane with two main supporting surfaces, or wings) with two propellers chain-driven by a gasoline motor (answers.com 2004)." Since then, the idea of having a safe travel by air is a myth no more. A lot of developments have been made and people from all over the globe were fascinated by the idea of having their travel via air. During these developments, it was also made to the knowledge of many that travel by air is much faster than transportations both in land and in water. With the demand surging continuously, the development of Airplane as a means of transportation was embraced. Up to present wherein a lot of models where introduced transporting tremendous amount of goods and people are being transported day after the other, flight or aviation safety is still a vital concern for the people who utilize airplanes and other related air transport vessels. For several years, air mishaps, crashes, engine malfunctioning has been recorded and was attributed for the loss of properties, resources and lives over the past several years. Due to these kinds of incidents, a lot of experts has been studying how to lessen and to formally eradicate this kind of tragedies by formulating remedies to solve these kinds of queries. Baron R (2005) has reported several aviation tragedies that were recorded and was regarded as the worst in the history. "In 1977, at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, heavy accents and improper terminology among a Dutch KLM crew, an American Pan Am crew and a Spanish air traffic controller led to the worst aviation disaster in history, in which 583 pass engers perished " and "In 1990, Colombian Avianca pilots in a holding pattern over Kennedy Airport told controllers that their 707 was low on fuel. The crew should have stated they had a "fuel emergency," which would have given them immediate clearance to land. Instead, the crew declared a "minimum fuel" condition and the plane ran out of fuel, crashing and killing 72 people." While the aforementioned examples deals with either pilot error or ignorance with some aircraft devices, we cannot also discredit the fact that some aircraft mishaps were due to mechanical failures of the aircraft and sometimes lead into horrible accidents. Mechanical and structure factors in aviation safety 3 Before venturing into air accidents and tragedies caused by mechanical malfunction, it is vital to know the mechanical structure of an airplane for the awareness and analysis of the factors that might trigger accidents during flights and on-ground instances. "The airplane has six main parts-fuselage, wings, stabilizer (or tail plane), rudder, one or more engines, and landing gear. The fuselage is the main body of the machine, customarily streamlined in form. It usually contains control equipment, and space for passengers and cargo. The wings are the main supporting surfaces. Modern airplanes are monoplanes (airplanes with one wing) and may be high-wing, mid-wing, or low-wing (relative to the bottom of the fuselage). At the trailing edge of the wings are auxiliary hinged surfaces known as ailerons that are used to gain lateral control and to turn