|
THE 9-11 PENTAGON PROBLEM.
The following diagram concisely summarizes the problem with the "official
line" concerning the Pentagon crash. The diagram is from
this document (local
copy here).
In the diagram a Boeing 757 has been superimposed on the plan of the
damaged section of the Pentagon. The Boeing 757 wingspan is 125 feet.
Using this fact, the image of the Boeing 757 has been scaled to its
correct size. The angle of impact of the aircraft was very close to 50
degrees (to the wall).
Using basic trigonometry, one calculates that the width of the visibly
damaged section of the Pentagon wall should be about 164 feet. However,
pictures of the Pentagon after the crash show that the damaged area is at
most 120 feet across. Some 44 feet too narrow. In fact, a number of
windows remain unbroken within the area that should have been impacted by
the wings-tips and tail.
The width between the undamaged concrete columns of the ground floor of
the outer wall, is at most 100 feet. Wing damage extends a further 20 feet
across the next floor (second floor) for a total width of 120 feet.
In the diagram the undamaged columns are colored light grey, while the
heavily damaged columns are colored blue and brown.
How The Measurements Were Made.
The distance from the Pentagon wall to A-E Drive is 220 feet (see the
arrow on the right).
Distances in pictures can be measured in terms of the number of pixels
(picture elements) that are spanned.
The distance from the Pentagon wall to A-E Drive can be measured and is
355 pixels (which we know corresponds to 220 feet).
This means that to convert pixels to feet, we have to scale, that is,
multiply by a factor of 220/355 = 0.619718
This reference allows us to establish other distances in the picture.
(To convert feet back to pixels, we would multiply by 355/220 = 1.6136)
The wingtips of the 757 are found to be 202 pixels (between the inner
sides of the black lines) apart.
This is 202 x 0.619718 = 125.183 feet, which is pretty damn close to the
real wingspan of 124 feet 10 inches.
As a check we know that the columns in the diagram are 10 feet apart.
On measuring we find that they are 16 pixels apart.
Now 16 pixels = 16 x 0.619718 = 9.91549 feet apart. So things are looking
good.
Other distances can be established similarly.
So What Does This Mean.
So, it appears that the outer half of both wings failed to hit the
Pentagon wall. How can this be? Of course, a pertinent question is:
How much damage would one expect the outer half of
the wings to do?
The following photo shows the damage (circled in red) inflicted on the
steel columns of the World Trade Center by a wing-tip of a Boeing 767.
Since even the wing-tips did massive damage to the steel columns of the
WTC, we would expect that the outer halves of both wings of the Boeing 757
would do even more damage to the Pentagons brick-fill walls and reinforced
concrete columns (these were hidden behind a limestone facade). That is,
we would expect extensive damage along the entire 164 feet of the wall
(that would have necessarily been impacted by any plane with a 125 foot
wingspan, hitting at 50 degrees). But pictures of the Pentagon show a much
smaller zone of impact. This leads one to believe that the Pentagon was
hit by a significantly smaller aircraft.
The above composite photo shows the Pentagon wall as it would have
appeared before the collapse of the upper floors. It gives a great
visualization of what has been discussed above. Where is the damage from
the outer part of the wings? Where is the damage from the tail? Below we
provide close-ups of the (lack of) damage to the areas that have been
circled in red.
The three ground floor windows in this picture are the windows in the
lefthand circle of the composite photo above. The left wing-tip should
have impacted these windows. Note the unbroken window. This photo clearly
shows the lack of damage by the outer left wing to a section of wall that
it should have impacted. Another view of this section of Pentagon wall is
provided in the last photo.
The windows in this picture are in the righthand circle of the composite
photo above. The aircrafts tail should have impacted to about the top of
the unbroken windows. Yes, the unbroken windows. This photo clearly shows
the lack of damage due to the aircrafts 44 foot 6 inch high tail.
A closer view of the (lack of) damage due to the outer left wing. The
windows in this photo are the two leftmost of the three ground floor
windows shown in the above photo of this section of wall. This photo was
taken considerably later than the one above, but sometime before the burnt
out car was hauled away.
So, all in all, there is a huge amount of doubt concerning the validity of
the official Pentagon story. Assuming the Bush administration has nothing
to hide, much of this doubt could be removed by the administration
allowing independent investigators to inspect the crash debris recovered
from the Pentagon and by allowing independent investigators access to the
black boxes and voice recorders.
Since the Bush administration has refused any such access, one can only
conclude that they are hiding something.
|
