How does the aircraft door mechanism works?
August 20th, 2007 | by door |
curious2noe asked:
As I said on the question on the airplane toilet just a moment before, i’ve been flying quite frequently now and i just don’t seem to understand the mechanism of the plane door. And what happens if let’s say a hyperactive boy accidentally open the door mid-air? Will everybody die? or will the door open mid-air?
DINO
As I said on the question on the airplane toilet just a moment before, i’ve been flying quite frequently now and i just don’t seem to understand the mechanism of the plane door. And what happens if let’s say a hyperactive boy accidentally open the door mid-air? Will everybody die? or will the door open mid-air?
DINO
3 Responses to “How does the aircraft door mechanism works?”
By wayne b on Aug 20, 2007 | Reply
On large pressurized aircraft…You would have to be superman to open it, the entry/exit doors pull in and slide open, the cabin pressure is greater inside the aircraft than outside as the plane pressurizes.
By John B on Aug 23, 2007 | Reply
Transport aircraft have what we call “plug doors.” This means that the aircraft pressurization is holding the door closed and not just the latch pins. An aircraft at normal pressurization of about 8 psid would put quite a closing force on the door. If the door is four feet wide and six feet tall that,s an area of 24 square feet or almost three hundred square inches. Multiply that times 8 and you’d have to apply 3200 pounds of pulling force to open that door in flight. That would be some hyperactive kid.
By calnickel on Aug 24, 2007 | Reply
It happened on a Southwest flight a few years ago. This boy was high on cocaine and he kicked down the flight deck door a couple times (it was before 9/11) and then tried to open an overwing exit. The passengers wound up killing him in the end.
But with pressurization, you would break the handle before you ever got the door open. Some older pressurized planes (like the Convair 580) don’t have plug doors so you could open them in flight, but the pressurization is lower (about 4 psi).