Thread

1. colonwqbang · 1790678244 · focus · HN ↗

   When you think about it, 24 years is not such a long time for a machine to keep doing what it's supposed to be doing. It says something about our profession that we find a 24-year service life surprising.

   There are airliners that have been in service for over 50 years.

   1. afavour · 1790680756 · focus · HN ↗

      I think it just speaks to how quickly the tech has developed. Airliners work more or less the same as they did 50 years ago, computers are vastly different (and vastly more powerful).

      1. Leonard_of_Q · 1790684915 · focus · HN ↗

         Airliners may look the same but they don't work as they did 50 years ago when the was no fly by wire in these planes, no high-bypass engines, etc.

         1. yCombLinks · 1790689638 · focus · HN ↗

            Computers are many thousands of times faster and more efficient than they were 50 years ago. Airplanes still fly at the same speeds, and with only marginal safety improvements. Fuel efficiency has doubled however. Overall significantly less changes.

            1. Leonard_of_Q · 1790691084 · focus · HN ↗

               Faster but for the rest basically the same. More megahertz, more megabytes, more transistors per cm2 of silicon, more processors but that's basically it. Von Neumann architecture, processing separated from memory, block/file-based storage, input and output through keyboards and displays.

               Yes, this drastically understates the change in computing but the actual technology hasn't changed that much, it just got denser and faster.

         2. zrail · 1790709811 · focus · HN ↗

            Eh, sorta. Fifty years ago was 1976 (I know, right?!). The 747 debuted in 1970 with high bypass engines. The A320 came out in 1988 with fly-by-wire and all Airbus aircraft since have been the same.

            The biggest change from then to now is probably the amount of solid state electronics onboard. That's ridden roughly the same curve as other industrial and commercial applications.

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