Two days ago, I wrote about Dan Rather’s story about an engineer fired from Boeing that is now making accusations that their new Dreamliner plane is unsafe.

Forty-six-year veteran Vince Weldon contends that in a crash landing that would be survivable in a metal airplane, the new jet’s innovative composite plastic materials will shatter too easily and burn with toxic fumes. He backs up his views with e-mails from engineering colleagues at Boeing and claims the company isn’t doing enough to test the plane’s crashworthiness.

Turns out Weldon was fired in July 2006 because he was allegedly ‘”threatening a supervisor, specifically for stating he wanted to hang the African-American executive “on a meat hook” and that he “wouldn’t mind” seeing a noose around the executive’s neck.”‘. OSHA looked into Weldon’s claims an concluded “that Boeing’s 787 design does not violate any FAA regulations or standards.”.

Fast forward to now. Disgraced CBS journalist Dan Rather, now working for the obscure HDNet, aired a story entitled “Plastic Planes”, going along with Weldon’s statements. When I reported this, I didn’t take either side because I admit I know nothing about this field. Who was I to question an veteran engineer?

That was then. Now we have this from Wired Magazine:

By taking a cheap shot at Boeing, Dan Rather may be headed for a comeback less graceful than Britney Spears’ performance at the MTV Music Awards.

On the most recent edition of his new show, he reported on Tuesday that the new 787 Dreamliner aircraft may be unsafe. Since then, dozens of news agencies have jumped on the bandwagon. Most of them are reporting that the carbon fiber frame may not be as safe as aluminum. Few have bothered to question Rather’s claims that the composite materials are brittle, more likely to shatter on impact, and prone to emit poisonous chemicals when ignited.

I haven’t yet watched the segment, but I have read the full transcript [doc]. As a researcher trained materials engineering, I consider the written summaries that appeared in the news today to be very misleading…

While there is a lot of weight behind the argument that composite materials are not as well-studied as aircraft aluminum, the reasoning behind the flurry of recent articles may be faulty. First off, if a plane crashes, the composite frame will definitely not be the only source of toxic fumes. Second, high performance composites have been used in fighter aircraft and for years. Sports cars, race cars, and train cars made from composite materials have endured fantastic crashes. Claims that the impact toughness of carbon fiber is inadequate may be premature.

Well, instead of just giving you his opinion, Aaron Rowe sought a second, from Cirrus Design. Cirrus has specialized in making small aircraft from composite materials for years:

Though Cirrus’ are made with different composite materials than the Dreamliner, there is no reason to believe that composites cannot be made every bit as strong as aluminum. Some would argue there is more energy absorption in composites than in aluminum structures. Also, this Dreamliner must go through FAA Certification before it is allowed on the market, like general aviation aircraft. There is no way the FAA would allow Boeing , nor would Boeing put an unsafe, loaded with people aircraft in the sky. Safety is paramount in decision making with all aircraft manufacturers.

And a third opinion from Tom Hahn, Professor of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering at UCLA and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Composite Materials. Hahn told Rowe:

I have full trust in Boeing’s decision to use composites in 787. It is a timely decision based on our understanding of composites stemming from many years of analytical and experimental research.

Again, I continue to remain cautious to take sides, again considering I have no credentials on this. However, the only one that’s backed Weldon’s claims…is Weldon (and emails he says came from colleagues). However, among those who have refuted the claims are OSHA, Cirrus, Hahn who is very credentialed and non-partisan, and the author at Wired. All airplanes must undergo the FAA’s tests before flying. Additionally, Boeing faces huge liability if they’re lying.

We’ll just have to see how this pans out.