Live data from Hacker News

The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

newyorker.com

231–240 of 269 posts

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#231
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If internally bad-mouthing the company doesn’t work, what are you left with?

It's not that he should or shouldn't have, it's that once you make that decision, certain consequences become likely. I place it more on the author trying to paint a victim narrative, given the guys board resignation (he knew his fate), and the fact that the author directly benefitted from the decision that got him fired.

> It's not that he should or shouldn't have

> I place it more on the author trying to paint a victim narrative,

If he should have, he's a victim; if he shouldn't have, he's not. If you "place it more" on the author trying to paint a victim narrative, you're explicitly saying that it is about whether he should or shouldn't have, and that you think he shouldn't have.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it beats eating horse dewormer.

You are aware that Ivermectin is FDA approved for human use?

For all the downvoters:

https://ivmmeta.com

+ from India: https://www.thedesertreview.com/news/national/ivermectin-obl...

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>activation at too low a speed would cause the vehicle to break apart. A breathtakingly bad design for a spacecraft. I do hope you know that outside its designed flight envelope, almost any space craft / rocket / airplane breaks apart pretty fast.

It is very difficult, and often impossible with all systems operational, to get a modern airliner outside of its flight envelope. I'd imagine a tiny glider with a rocket bolted on is a different story.

You would have a harder time on an Airbus, but on any Boeing it is not difficult at all. The Fly-by-wire and auto-throttle on an Airbus are designed to prevent the aircraft from leaving its flight-envelope, but Boeing airliners have far less of such 'MCAS' style of protection.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#235
post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. In most cases you will get warnings but if you are hands-on you can fly into an unrecoverable situation, specially if you are not very high.

The systems prevent you from flying outside of the flight envelope, not from smashing the plane into the ground. Of course you can crash if you want, but the plane will still be within the flight envelope.

Not true for Boeing airliners; keep pulling back on the yoke of a Boeing, and it will stall just like any other aircraft.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#236
post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like a more realistic motivation for that would be to reduce the risk of failure- if the primary team flubbed the project, the secondary team would still be an option. (Such a system would also give you an opportunity to judge how effective either team was.) Awful thing to do to engineers, but you can understand why management would do it and why they wouldn't want to demoralize the secondary team by tellin…

No, the work of all teams except the pre-selected real one was discarded and never passed on for evaluation. If you wanted to do it for real you would do it up front and ask them all to try different approaches and have rendevous points to compare and evaluate and exchange findings. I suspect that would be much better morale for all teams involved, but would require management to give up on their "chosen" team, and p…

You’ll need to provide a source for this.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We used to have smart guys in competition. Edison vs. Tesla. Not we have rich business savy guys with not much of a science background holding the cards. I have met very few wealthy men, young or old, who had great ideas. It's almost like the money dulls their brains? And their vanity projects are usually way out of their wheelhouse. It's the same with Writers. I have read very few wealthy guys shop could write. They…

Edison wasn't a smart guy. He hired smart guys and didn't give them credit for their inventions, while trying to talk to the dead.

Sounds exactly like at least a pair of these attention-seeking billionaires who rant about technology and engineering.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#238
post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The systems prevent you from flying outside of the flight envelope, not from smashing the plane into the ground. Of course you can crash if you want, but the plane will still be within the flight envelope.

Not true for Boeing airliners; keep pulling back on the yoke of a Boeing, and it will stall just like any other aircraft.

Possibly, I'm mostly familiar with Airbus. I thought the newer 787s were more FBW-ish.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed about the chickens and it will have a broader negative impact than the $SPCE stock price. Fundamentally I think it’s a culture problem. Collaborative engineering that identifies problems, views them as opportunities, doesn’t finger-point, and works each problem. Versus a sales and marketing organization with hard deadlines and a 100% focus on perception and revenue targets. We don’t need an Apollo 1 in the pri…

Sadly these rules tend to get written in blood.

And if not enough blood has been spilled, the rules can't get written. Safety regulations aren't just written in blood, that's all they effectively can be written in.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve McQueen wants you to hold his beer.[0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZ-BHBKyos

Apparently they had to do major repairs on the cars every night, because the jumps were so brutal. In one shot, you can see a large plume of oil appear as the car hits the ground and its oil pan is destroyed. :-O

The Mustang was beat up & patched together and, yet, it still sold for $3.7M last year.[0]

[0]https://bullitt.mecum.com/

Post reply on HN