“Hoax”?: Boeing confirms 767 part found on Ground Zero mosque site is from Sept. 11 terror attack

ERSTE!

The wreckage shown does not look like part of an airliner’s landing gear. On the other hand, it could indeed be part of a Fowler flap, in other words, a rear part of the wing of a large airliner. (A Fowler flap moves down and to the rear as it is extended. It increases the chord of the wing on approach, as well increasing the curvature of the wing with respect to the relative wind.)
Yours,
LV

LOl geller you seem a little confused. Nobody is saying that engine is NOT from one of the planes from 9/11. What many sceptics are saying is that item appears to have been planted there. Now i’m no aviation expert, but i’m pretty sure the landing gear on planes does not have ropes tied around it or a pulleys system attached to it. Its almost certain, beyond doubt, that this was planted at the site. I have watched the videos of the attacks time and again and i have yet to see any large parts of the plane go flying several blocks away. geller and co, your nonsense is getting boring now. At first your hysterical anti-muslim ramblings were rathyer amusing. Now they are just getting boring.

Cable, oh, THATS what you call that cheap rope from the grocery store, a cable…..riiiight……i see. So Boeing manufacture using state of the art materials, BUT decide to use a clkeap rope as part of the landing gear?! lol

You do NOT KNOW that the item in the grainy picture is a ROPE. You are GUESSING to fit your agenda. you have NO IDEA how the part was built. Show us the design plans from Boeing. Will they support your smart-ass remarks? You don’t know. You are just GUESSING.

Yes, you are clearly no expert: not on aviation nor on Islam. Instead of moronically trying to shoot the messenger you could try to educate yourself and do some basic research.

Ridicule and slander is the defense of the weak of mind. Mr. Damien only wants to provoke, as he has nothing else to offer.

I agree 100% with your first point (“Ridicule and slander …”), but I must disagree – at least partially – with your second (” … he has nothing else to offer.”. Some of the points Damein brings up often DO have merit; but they are just worded in ways that are more likely to provoke an angry backlash than any critical discussion amongst commentators, which greatly limits their actual usefulness.
For instance, in this particular thread, Damein brings up the ropes/pulley attached to the object. That has been a large question mark for me, as well, since the very beginning. I would – VERY MUCH – like to hear more about that particular detail, as it does seem curious and out-of-place. I don’t like loose ends.
For my own part, I’d like to hear more about that rope – BUT – I would like it to be done without name-calling, ad hominems, wild-ass guessing, and the like. If anyone has any solid factual info, and can add it using the same manner as Ludwig Vogel has so masterfully done above – i.e. without appeals to emotion or conspiracy theories – then I would be grateful.
Specifically: was the rope made of fiber (i.e. like rope from a hardware store, that is used for lifting/dragging things), or is it a multi-strand wire cable (of the sort used in aircraft manufacture, for moving parts of the plane while in flight)? That info would help enormously to sort out whether the rope was indeed used to try to either place (or remove) the part itself. If the rope is indeed made of rope (i.e. fiber rope from a hardware store), how old does it appear to be? Is it aged/deteriorated, or does it look fresh (i.e. recently bought)? This could shed some light on when it was put there, which in turn could give some clues as to who put it there. If it is old and deteriorated, perhaps it was blown/deposited there by the collapse of the Twin Towers. Rope is a common enough material in buildings that it could plausibly just be a coincedence that both objects (rope & plane part) ended up together in the same odd corner by the Towers’ collapse. If the rope is fresh and new, then someone would have had to put it there recently, which opens up a whole new Pandora’s box of possibilities a/o conspiracy theories.
In summation, there does seem to be enough wiggle room left between the current data points to question this artifact’s authenticity – but only just barely. Can anyone add more hard data points, so we can get a better idea of what kind of picture is the best fit – authentic or hoax?
Currently, though, for my money … well … the simplest solition is usually the most likely (also known as Occam’s Razor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor ). Since it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I am calling this one a duck, until anyone proves conclusively otherwise. This looks like a part from an airplane, of an age & type consistant with being deposited there during the Twin Towers tragedy, so that’s what I think it is – if anyone actually cares about MY opinion, lol.
Until anyone can show complelling proof otherwise, that’s my best guess, and I am sticking to it.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that people would try to ascribe sinister motivations to the appearance of a bit of cable in the wreckage of the Fowler flap extension mechanism depicted in the image mistakenly labelled “gear.”
Fowler flaps are complex mechanisms. They must translate to the rear, and rotate downwards at the same time. In order to accomplish these motions, the actuator usually uses cables that rotate the flap downwards as it moves backwards. Unfortunately, the image I found for the Boeing 767 inboard flap mechanism doesn’t make the cables easy to see. Perhaps I could use Photoshop to color the cables enough to illustrate my point.
http://worldofaircraftdesign.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/flaps-boeing-767.jpg

I got a look at a clearer set of schematics for the 767 flap mechanism, which show a pretty standard arrangement for airliners. There are no cables—the mechanism is actuated by a jackscrew which moves the linked levers which translate and rotate the flaps into position. (This is quite different from the flap mechanisms on the aircraft I had to study when I learned to fly.)
Only God knows where that bit of cable in the image labelled came from, but its orientation does not suggest it was used to carry or lower the flap mechanism into its resting place at the bottom of the air shaft behind the “cultural center” site.
Please keep your readers posted on what the investigation turns up. Remember, the NTSB is very thorough, and thorough takes time.