Originally posted by Aldo Marquis
CL,
Columns 15-20 were intact.
Aldo, if you read my blog you'll know this is one of my things.
As a Pgon researcher you might just dig the insight. Of course any realizations would be too little too late of course, and I don't expect a course
change, but for the others I'd like to offer my theory:
Post on my ego blog - needs updated
I’ve also shown it to Craig twice and I don’t recall a response. Summarized here tho.
Looking at photos, it appears that columns 15-20 on the outer row and beyond are intact, tho 15-17 appear heavily damaged. Oddly, there's some
confusion in official reports as to how to read these photos.
- ASCE/PBPR: C15-17 were “severely distorted but still attached at least at their top ends to the second-floor framing.”
- Penren News Briefing, March 2002. showed a slide with C15-17, along with the entire outer row between columns 9 and 19 uniformly listed as
“missing.” Period. Their listing C18 as missing is odd considering the photos I’ve seen show that one at least at standing proud even
after the collapse.
So one school of thought insist wrongly that columns 15-17 are present and rightly that 18 is intact, while the other rightly asserts that columns
15-17 are gone, but wrongly classes columns 18 as missing too. Should it be that hard for any one source get it all right at the same time?
I've been meaning to do some better graphics to try and recreate what exactly these "columns" might've originally been. But really – 100% sure
these are intact columns? Different sizes, shapes, unevenly spaced? Really look at it.
Can’t you see horizontal elements, like limestone façade segments, possible a warped girder, dropping down at an angle after the columns beneath
were removed? I'm not 100% convinced, but dang, it all fits a lot better than columns.
I got this tip from
Jim Hoffman first, BTW.
Now about these "columns..."
They were blown UP and OUT from the base. It is insane to suggest that the right engine went through that.
Then I am insane, because I not only suggest it but find it highly likely. “blown up and out.” I keep hearing this claim and haven’t seen it
explained. It’s not evident. Is it supposed to be? Looks like down and to the left, probably about flush with building face.
Why is there no continuity to the "wing damage" when it tilted up it's right wing?. It looks as if the facade simply fell off in this
section:
Perhaps there was not too much continuity to the wing? First, unlike the left, it was cutting across the second floor slab with the final bank,
meaning much tougher going. Second, the right wing had clipped 2 light poles (or was it three?) and it or its engine smashed the generator and got it
smoldering. Or so we’re told. The ASCE decided in fact that the wings may have exploded prior to impact due to these facts, which matches many
eyewitness accounts. This could also explain for the smallness of the hole (only 90 feet wide!), which is almost totally from the lack of the outer
2/3 of the right wing, which clearly did not enter. So where’d it go? Check the silver tinsel strewn across the lawn after and tell me how that
can’t possibly be wing metal.
The right wing root and engine entered at about CL 16 it seems, obliterating it and causing those “columns” to drop down.
The biggest smoking gun besides the undamaged foundation and the no tail section damage is column 14AA.
THIS reduces the size of the "fuselage hole". It is clear that the two windows were blown out.
Would it be more likely or less likely to leave a segment of column hanging in the middle of the "fuselage hole". That makes it about what 18
ft?
THIS dangler is your smoking gun #2?
1) Jim Hoffman: this “hanging object […] appears to consist in part of remains of the steel reinforcements that were part of column 14. […] it
might have pivoted as the plane entered the building, and then fallen back into a vertical position.” [see link above]
2) Here’s how the plane is alleged to have entered – can any sharp poster here see any reason a partial column 14 might have survived the impact,
attached at the top end but not the bottom?
3) Look at that fuselage top – it couldn’t permanently defy the 2nd floor slab, but couldn’t help but dent it at that spot either. ASCE agrees
with me on this point that the slab shows signs of breaching there, as seen in the shot below – look at the glow in the center and notice the floor
seems to start a ways in. Therefore C14 would have had no floor to anchor to.
4) Oddly enough, there is another famous shot that shows no column at all in that very spot. Pentagon photoshopping? Or dropped dangler? If this was
such a mighty column that would have barred entry to a 757, then why did it disappear on its on within 20 minutes (before collapse)?
Original photo:
Response? Am I wrong? Did smoking gun #2 fall away of its own accord?
The plane allegedly entered the Pentagon under an angle of 45 degrees, thus the effective horizontal lengths become
length_eff = length/cos(pi*45/180)
effective diameter engine: 11 feet
effective width fuselage: 17 feet
effective distance between the center of the fuselage to center of the engines: 30 feet
effective span 757-200: 176 feet
I don't even know that formula to couble-check. I'm sure it's right. Actually the angle was more like 39 deg I think, but I use 45 also so I can
use the Pythagorean theorem to find that the core, from one outer engine edge to the other is about 50 feet, needing thus just over 70 feet of space
to fit into the outer wall – both engines and fuselage, more or less, on floor one, where columns were removed for over 90 feet by my estimates.
Now go look at the size of the hole that the second plane left in WTC2.
Think people
...about how different the situations were. A modern aluminum tube skyscraper (not talking core, just where the plane punched through) vs. a sturdy,
classic column architecture of steel reinforced concrete. And also that the Pgon plane was likely blowing up before impact.
Food for thought.
[edit on 10-6-2007 by Caustic Logic]
[edit on 10-6-2007 by Caustic Logic]