AIRLINE SAFETY IS IN A DEEP
RUT
SAFER, SUPERIOR
TECHNOLOGY SUPPRESSED OVER 60 YEARS
By: Chalmers H.
Goodlin
(article written June 3, 1997 at
IAPA's
"First
Class" magazine request - article never published.)
1996 was a record year for airline
passenger fatalities and hull losses. As is customary, the
aviation oligopoly brayed its usual rhetoric about statistics
proving that air travel is the safest form of transportation.
Such rhetoric is unacceptable. It is not only an insult to the
families of air crash victims, but a global disgrace to a
70-year old industry which has no doubt received more taxpayer
funding during its existence than any other. A major aircraft
manufacturer recently warned that the public must expect
future airliner losses "at the rate of one per week". Does
this represent progress, as we near the 21st
century?
The Burnelli Company, Inc. of Coral Gables,
Florida, claims that today's accident and fatality rates have
been unnecessary. Furthermore, that billions of taxpayer
monies have been wasted on present aircraft technology that
has long been obsolete. The company founder, Mr. Vincent
Justus Burnelli, invented lifting body aircraft technology in
1921. With its proven superiority of performance, safety and
economy in nine different lifting body aircraft before 1947, the lifting body technology
supersedes all existing, streamlined fuselage airliners.
Tragically, because of political suppression, Burnelli lifting
body airliners are not flying today.
The manufacturers, airlines and federal
authorities regularly target "pilot error" for a large
proportion of the total crashes. This is not correct, as
airline pilots are among the most highly trained professionals
in any industry. Indeed, they are trained by the manufacturers
and the airlines under FAA approved ground and flight training
schedules with ongoing refresher courses. Therefore, why, at
this late date in air transport history, do we have record air
crashes and record hull losses? To paraphrase a recent
electioneering slogan: "It's the [airplanes], stupid!"
Airliners today are simply derivatives
of early planes, like the Boeing 247 and the Douglas DC-2,
which embrace the conventional technology of the late 1920s
and the 1930s, i.e. the irresponsible practice of hanging
engines and landing gear onto fuel tank supporting structure
in combination with excessively high take-off and landing
speeds on overstressed tires. Add to these design flaws a
fragile fuselage, devoid of crashworthy features, and there is
a perfect recipe for fiery disaster.
By 1935, the industry and all
government agencies were fully aware that these fatal flaws,
inherent in the conventional designs, were totally eliminated
in the well proven Burnelli lifting body design. Outstanding
in payload and performance with low take-off and landing
speeds, the Burnelli UB-14, on January 13, 1935, demonstrated
to the world its unparalleled structural integrity in a
spectacular high-speed crash at Newark, New Jersey. Though it
hit the ground at 135 miles per hour and cartwheeled across
the field, the fuselage remained intact, no fire ensued and
the occupants walked out unscathed [Test Pilot Louis T. Reichers report w/ pictures]. How could this happen?
Simply, because the Burnelli fuselage is comprised of the bulk
of the aircraft structure which provides a safety cage for the
occupants. The engines and landing gear, the major fire
sources, are attached to the main structure and isolated from
the fuel tanks in the outer wing panels. The engines are
mounted close together on the fuselage, eliminating the
serious asymmetrical thrust problems, associated with
conventional airliners which have engines mounted way outboard
of the centerline of thrust. Such major safety advances were
recognized by most aviation experts of the period:
In 1936, Dr. Alexander Klemin , Dean of Aeronautics at New York
University, stated:
"The advantage of the Burnelli
principle of design should prove of even greater value in
the 'giant', long-range airplane of the
future."
(continued on next
page) 
