One of the Dreamliners That Gave a Boeing Manager Nightmares Just Crashed

[jmowreader]

11. My thoughts on the "engine failure" comment

If your airplane is descending when it's supposed to be climbing, the first thing that's going to go through your mind is "the engines have stopped working." They've found the Flight Data Recorder, and all the engine performance data is on it. That jet also has a satellite data link that sends performance data directly to General Electric, which GE uses for a lot of things like telling them when to bring you a new engine. (Airliner engines all belong to the engine manufacturer, and the airline leases them. Because the manufacturer still owns the engine, they can keep up with maintenance a lot better than they did when people still bought engines.)

From what I've been told about the 787, Boeing has built safeguards into it that govern when and how much the flaps can retract...so, if you begin your takeoff roll at Flaps 5 and leave the ground you can pull the flap handle all the way back and the plane will decide, based on programmed factors, when to move them to notches 4 through 0.