Monday, September 24, 2012

Mitt's latest gaffe: we should have operable windows on jets.

First, a scary and serious moment: Ann Romney's plane suffered from an electrical fire that caused smoke to fill the plane.  Thank goodness it did not crash!

What followed can only be described as an odd response from Mitt:
"When you have a fire in an aircraft, there’s no place to go, exactly, there’s no — and you can’t find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don’t open. I don’t know why they don’t do that. It’s a real problem. So it’s very dangerous."
Yes Mitt, I wonder why they don't put operable windows on jets?  Okay, maybe I do have to explain why we don't have operable windows on jets:


  • An operable window in a jet would depressurize the plane, making it difficult to breathe;
  • It tends to want to suck people (and anything else) out of the window because the air velocity outside is much higher than inside;
  • You might as well forget about any smoke, because everything will by flying around, hitting you;
  • Fires need oxygen, and increasing air flow will only encourage the fire to grow;
  • There is oxygen -- those drop down masks, as required in pressurized aircraft.
I'm a bit shocked right now.  I think I'm starting to understand now, why Mitt has no regrets over strapping the dog onto the roof of the station wagon -- he simply doesn't know much about physics and science.

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