07-07-2011, 02:31 AM
The building had an intricate lattice structure. The floors were steel trusses, attached at one end to the core columns and at the other to the external support columns. They were filled with 4-8" of concrete, which--at 208' x 208'--represented an acre of concrete apiece. Flight 11 intersected with seven (7) floors, Flight 175 with eight (8). They posed massive horizontal resistance. The velocity of the plane would have gone to zero, where most of the fuselage crumpled, the wings and tail broke off, and bodies, seats, and luggage fell to the ground. None of that happened. If you understand the damage that a tiny bird (weighing only a few ounces) can do to a commercial carrier, imagine what would happen if such a plane collided with one of the floors suspended in space. I am sure you can't get your mind around that. But then, what's new?
Jeffrey Orling Wrote:Fetzer, you understanding of what the collision of a jet plane with the steel box columns and spandrels would look like is rather bizarre. Are you trying to assert that the columns would not deform or break and most of the plane would bounce off in "intact" sections?... That only the "weaker" glass of the facade would yield to the plane's fuselage?
Suppose you had a balloon of 10,000 gallon and it was moving at 400 mph and it slammed into the towers... no aluminum skin or hardened engines or landing gear... just a huge rubber bladder filled with water or fuel . What would happen? Would the 400 mph volume of liquid damage the facade columns? Would it break them or bounce off and disperse into a mist. Or perhaps a both? Would the shape of the balloon matter?
Perhaps you can explain what your understanding of such a collision would look like.