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Re: Airline Pilot Tragically Suffers Fatal Heart Attack During Flight Leading to Emergency Landing
Author: FUD
Date: 11-27-2019 - 22:05
The 757 wasn't a stretched 737. It was a nearly clean-sheet design with some background in the 727, done alongside the 767. It is (still many in operation) bigger, taller (with larger-diameter engines, longer-range, and better designed for high-altitude airports than the 737. Only the latest 737-900 comes close to the basic 757-200 in number of seats and range.
There were a lot more 737s sold (providing an interesting load to follow as 737 fuselages were and are built in Wichita KS and shipped to Renton WA by rail for final assembly) because US air travel is dominantly short-medium range routes. 757s typically did the longer coast-to-coast runs until 737-800s were built to do that reliably. 757a are still used on a lot of FedEx and UPS cargo runs.
Automation has been increasing in all transportation modes, but it'll be a long time before regular planes are fully automated with no flight crew. And as long as there's a flight crew, I think there will be 2, for the same redundancy reasons that the computers are doubled and most other things. Trains don't require that; if something goes wrong, it's OK to just stop and call for help. Yes, the engineer's job under automated circumstances could devolve to something like a BART "train attendant" - push the STOP button and call dispatch in an emergency.
Amusing: I live under the approach for an airport with UPS service. Since it's not a major hub, we only get the true heavies during the holiday season; normal traffic is A300-6, 757-200, and 767-300 freighters. Of those, the A300s are the loudest; even when the pilot tried hard to follow the noise reduction procedures, they're loud. The 767s are very quiet, and when operated carefully under good conditions they're nearly silent going over. 757s are in between, but closer to the 767 for overall noise. I usually sleep right through their arrivals. Of course, with the holidaze coming on, we'll probably get our share of bigger (usually contractor) planes that actually do wake people up - 747s and MD11s/DC10s, with the DC10s by far the loudest (most of those don't operate at night thank goodness). I live with it - the airport (about 10 miles away) was there before the houses were, and some efforts have been made at mitigation. And people complain about train noise...
There were a lot more 737s sold (providing an interesting load to follow as 737 fuselages were and are built in Wichita KS and shipped to Renton WA by rail for final assembly) because US air travel is dominantly short-medium range routes. 757s typically did the longer coast-to-coast runs until 737-800s were built to do that reliably. 757a are still used on a lot of FedEx and UPS cargo runs.
Automation has been increasing in all transportation modes, but it'll be a long time before regular planes are fully automated with no flight crew. And as long as there's a flight crew, I think there will be 2, for the same redundancy reasons that the computers are doubled and most other things. Trains don't require that; if something goes wrong, it's OK to just stop and call for help. Yes, the engineer's job under automated circumstances could devolve to something like a BART "train attendant" - push the STOP button and call dispatch in an emergency.
Amusing: I live under the approach for an airport with UPS service. Since it's not a major hub, we only get the true heavies during the holiday season; normal traffic is A300-6, 757-200, and 767-300 freighters. Of those, the A300s are the loudest; even when the pilot tried hard to follow the noise reduction procedures, they're loud. The 767s are very quiet, and when operated carefully under good conditions they're nearly silent going over. 757s are in between, but closer to the 767 for overall noise. I usually sleep right through their arrivals. Of course, with the holidaze coming on, we'll probably get our share of bigger (usually contractor) planes that actually do wake people up - 747s and MD11s/DC10s, with the DC10s by far the loudest (most of those don't operate at night thank goodness). I live with it - the airport (about 10 miles away) was there before the houses were, and some efforts have been made at mitigation. And people complain about train noise...
