Near criminally stupid though. Not only did they have issues with two separate control surfaces, a unplanned stall and a safety violation on takeoff, they did all of these things for a marketing piece establishing the plane was safe. This at a time where metal fatigue and structural load was not well understood, as the Europeans where finding out as their planes decompressed explosively midair.
There was a 747-SP that went supersonic by accident and was only saved by the crew deploying the landing gear to slow the plane down. He amount of damage was non trivial.
Someone will probably jump all over the critics of Douglas and point out Boeing’s Tex Johnson’s barrel row. 1) that was not endorsed by the company and 2) was a neutral G maneuver. 3) the company appropriately freaked and told him never to do that again.
We have occupational safety and standards operating procedures for a reason.
There was a 747-SP that went supersonic by accident and was only saved by the crew deploying the landing gear to slow the plane down. He amount of damage was non trivial.
Someone will probably jump all over the critics of Douglas and point out Boeing’s Tex Johnson’s barrel row. 1) that was not endorsed by the company and 2) was a neutral G maneuver. 3) the company appropriately freaked and told him never to do that again.
We have occupational safety and standards operating procedures for a reason.