scott wrote:

> Just depends on how it's been designed really, both electrical and
> mechanical systems can be rubbish or really reliable.  I suspect as a very
> rough rule-of-thumb, the mechanical parts are more vulnerable to extreme
> shocks and vibrations, whilst electrical systems would be more vulnerable
> to static and extreme temperature/humidity.

That's what I was thinking of.

Read a while ago that the RAF had to pay compensation to almost a hundred
car owners - one of their air-defense "steerable-array" radars went haywire
and scanned over a road - they burned out almost every vehicle's ignition
and fuel injection microprocessors with the radar beam!

The point being an old, mechanical vehicle ignition system (carburettors, a
rotor and points) would have just driven on with no problems.

Viz a viz mechanical against electrical failures... 
-- 
Stefan Viljoen

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