Originally Posted by
forgot to bid
Out of curiosity Bar, or anyone, say an airplane pancakes into the runway or ground flat with the mains out, what kind of vertical speed descent rate would be fatal? I think airplanes have landed at 1600 fpm before?
Depends a lot on body positioning and duration. The NHTSA standard is outrageously high, like 75G for a 50th percentile male or 65G for a female.
At those forces, something's already broken loose (some seat tracks are lousy designs) and blunt force trauma gets them. What are really strange are the abdominal injuries involving the GI tract. The injured party can be walking around in low or moderate pain with no real externally visible injury, then die before diagnosis can be completed as a result of toxicity or blood loss. I used to own a Bonanza with the swing over yoke design. I planned to swing it over to the other side of the cockpit and force the door open immediately after trimming into best glide if ever it were necessary ... I don't like the way yokes are designed in most general aviation aircraft ... kinda like a harpoon. In my own airplanes the first money I spend on upgrades are really good shoulder harnesses for every occupied seat.
If you want to get really ticked off about outsourcing and compromised components in aircraft:
Seat maker Koito's deception results in FAA airworthiness directive
Despite receiving numerous objections from multiple parties the US FAA has issued a new airworthiness directive for aircraft seats made by embattled Japanese manufacturer Koito Industries, which falsified test data on some 150,000 seats in the world fleet.