I’ve noticed that when companies like GE and Pratt & Whitney test out their engines, they use strobe lighting when “filming” so that problems like vibration, imbalanced components and structural weaknesses can be more easily seen and identified.
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That’s a common misconception; if they included the original audio recordings with those videos, you’d learn that the wind tunnels are so incredibly noisy that any music loud enough to be heard over them pretty much requires the use of a strobe light.
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Reminds me of this old school lore on how the founder of SRL lost his hand.
Shaking his mangled stump was a rite of passage for anyone joining the crew. WAY more effective than a safety first lecture.
https://srl.org/yard/misc/injury.html
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Apparently, when the Boeing 747 was first built it required bigger engines than were actually available at the time and Pratt & Whitney (I think) were tasked producing them. But the development of the engines lagged behind the production of the airframes and engineless 747s began to accumulate around the Boeing factory with enormous concrete blocks holding them down.
When the first batch of engines did arrive they turned out to be problematic. Quickly opening the throttle would cause some kind of a surge and the engine would burst. Opening the throttle smoothly and gently was fine, but a sudden application of power (such as might occur in an emergency go-around) would result in a failure of the motor just when it was most needed.
Boeing was unhappy at the delays to its program and a Pratt and Whitney representative was summoned to participate in a test flight to demonstrate the problem.
The aircraft took off normally and flew to a safe location and altitude. The captain explained what he was about to do, then quickly opened the the throttle of one of the four engines. The engine surged, then BANG!
The captain quickly opened the throttle of the opposite engine. Surge BANG!
The captain placed his hand on the throttle of a third motor, turning to stare into the eyes of the visibly shaken Pratt and Whitney man, who quickly explained that no further demonstrations were necessary and that he would personally guarantee that the problem would be rectified post haste.
There’s a documentary about the development of the 747 on YouTube somewhere but I can’t find it.
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And now I’m wondering how long it took for him to pick all the shrapnel out of his drywall. So much for the cleaning deposit.
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