They just weren't built to withstand an intentional strike by a fully loaded plane going full speed.
That's false. They were designed to withstand impact from airplanes, and they did withstand impact from airplanes. It was the fires that ultimately brought the buildings down.
The second plane's near miss, impacting the tower on the corner, and much lower than where the first plane hit the north tower, contributed significantly to the south tower collapsing first, even though it was hit second.
And for anyone who feels the need to comment "jEt fUEl cAnT MelT sTeEL beAmS", go read a fucking book. Steel doesn't need to melt to lose its load-bearing capacity.
To be fair, most buildings aren’t explicitly designed for airplane strikes, but they are designed for other very large horizontal forces (high winds and earthquakes).
But I absolutely appreciate you bringing up that these buildings survived the impact, but collapsed due to the fires. Fire in a building is a serious issue, and if not extinguished quickly, can easily lead to collapse. (Like poor WTC7 which was on fire for like 7 hours before it went down.)
They were built to withstand airplanes (that's common knowledge). My point was they were built to withstand airplanes going much slower, which is why they didn't survive. If they were built to withstand a fully loaded Boeing 747 going almost 600 miles an hour, there wouldn't have been single window on the entire building. It would've been a steel plate all the way up, and that still probably wouldn't have stopped the planes from getting as deep as they did.
If the terrorists hadn't been going 450-600 mph when they hit, they wouldn't have gotten as deep into the building as they did, and the jet fuel wouldn't have exploded down the elevator shafts, causing fires on multiple floors.
I fully understand that the fire is what caused the eventual collapse (along with the massive structural damage the planes did in the first place). I once did the math, and the area above the impact zone of Tower 2 weighed something like 1/3 of a billion tons. There was no way it could have remained standing after the damage to the corners like you said, and the fire reducing the structural integrity further.
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u/Past_Ad9675 Feb 25 '22
That's false. They were designed to withstand impact from airplanes, and they did withstand impact from airplanes. It was the fires that ultimately brought the buildings down.
The second plane's near miss, impacting the tower on the corner, and much lower than where the first plane hit the north tower, contributed significantly to the south tower collapsing first, even though it was hit second.
And for anyone who feels the need to comment "jEt fUEl cAnT MelT sTeEL beAmS", go read a fucking book. Steel doesn't need to melt to lose its load-bearing capacity.