RE: A Day in Technical Documentation History

Subject: RE: A Day in Technical Documentation History
From: "Janoff, Steven" <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- hologic -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, "Rick Lippincott" <rjl6955 -at- gmail -dot- com>, Bee Hanson <beelia -at- pacbell -dot- net>
Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 19:44:09 +0000

What if the plane's computer system fails or the digitized manuals otherwise become inaccessible? No paper backup? (Might be rare but you'd think as a failsafe...)

Also, anybody remember what happened with the Challenger shuttle and the O-rings? I think this story was circulated a while back (at least once -- too lazy to search). Was the documentation at fault in any way? I remember there was an internal whistleblower in Morton Thiokol who had warned against the very situation that happened (launching in cold weather and failure of the O-rings, right?).

Thanks,

Steve

On Thursday, May 26, 2016 3:24 AM, Rick Lippincott wrote:

Bee Hanson said:
>My team's 40,000+ pages of documentation were in the cockpit...

Good placement. Sounds a bit more convenient than on the C-5, where (when they were still paper) only manuals directly related to flight were in the cockpit. The rest of the ones they carried were on a pair of deck-mounted racks immediately aft of the second bunkroom, forward of the first galley.

(And for those of you not familiar with the C-5, I am not making this up.)

Last time I was up in that area was a couple of years ago, the racks are still there but empty. It's all digital now.

--Rick Lippincott


On 5/26/16, Bee Hanson <beelia -at- pacbell -dot- net> wrote:
> I worked for MDC in the late 80s, not for the DC-10, but for the C-17,
> which is still flying.
> My team's 40,000+ pages of documentation were in the cockpit, which by
> now they have certainly digitized. But it's such a huge cargo plane
> that extra weight would hardly have mattered.
> I don't believe any of those planes ever crashed (after first flight),
> but I can't take credit for it. The whole program was run by the DoD -
> a military project that was apparently successful.
> Who woulda thunk it.
> Bee
>
> On Wednesday, May 25, 2016 7:41 PM, William Sherman
> <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
>
> Unfortunately, history is often created by incredibly sad or horrible
> events. Today in 1979, that pretty much describes it. American
> Airlines Flight 191 crashed after take off at O'Hare International
> Airport in Chicago. A total of 273 people lost their lives as a
> result, the deadliest aviation accident in the US.
>
> A coworker was only a couple of miles from the airport on that day and
> saw the smoke all rise up when it happened.He says he will never forget it.
>
> How this ties to technical documentation is that it saved the company
> that built that plane, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10. Initially blamed as
> a poor design and as such, all liability would come on McDonnell
> Douglas, it was found that MDC had fully documented the correct method
> of removing and installing the wing engines and that American Airlines
> and others were using an unauthorized shortcut. As such, MDC was not held responsible.
>
> Hopefully, your documentation will never be tested under such horrible
> conditions, but please make sure it will stand up to such scrutiny.

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Follow-Ups:

References:
Flare-only shop?: From: Nancy Allison
A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: William Sherman
Re: A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: Bee Hanson
Re: A Day in Technical Documentation History: From: Rick Lippincott

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