I just had to bring this over from TivoCommunity. This should strike a chord w/folks from Tacoma, WA or engineers, esp. civil engineers over here. I'm not sure it's worth watching the entire YouTube video, but the person walking at the 0:43 mark or so really puts the scale in perspective...
That's scary! My grandparents came from Russia, but I've never felt the urge to visit there. Now, even less! Twice, in Cuba, I did fly in a very old Russian-built propeller airplane. I don't remember whether it was turbo-prop or piston-engine. It was kind of scary, knowing the plane was built in Soviet-era Russia. However, we made it safely to our destination both times. (Havana to Santiago de Cuba, and back again.)
Them "Rooskies" aren't the only engineers that make mistakes, y'know. I-35W Mississippi River bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia And Daniel, you were probably safer in that "rickety" Russian built airplane than when in any other mode of transport, there or here. This nationalistic condescension is tiresomely childish.
or the Mianus River bridge section collapse [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mianus_River_Bridge"]Mianus River Bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
The Cubans are extremely good mechanics, so that was in my favor. But the plane was very old, and that was a point against it. Everyone told us those old Russian airplanes were very reliable, but I was still scared. Fear is seldom logical, as we saw in the great Prius Chat shark debate a while back.
