Course description
In Engineering Ethics: Case Study of the Goodrich Aircraft Brake Scandal , you'll learn ...
- The sequence of events that make up the Goodrich Aircraft Brake Scandal
- What factors or forces may have led individuals to compromise their professional standards
- Different scholarly interpretations of the case and views on whistle-blowing
- The immediate procedural impact and long-lasting ethical implications of the case
Overview
To meet the Ohio Board's intent that online courses be "paced" by the provider, a timer will be used to record your study time. You will be unable to access the quiz until the required study time of 100 minutes has been met.
Credit: 2 PDH
Length: 20 pages
It has been hailed as the first incident of corporate whistle-blowing, but were the allegations made against the company true? Did the company actually falsify tests and endanger the lives of test pilots and potentially others?
The story begins as the B. F. Goodrich Wheel and Brake Plant in Troy, Ohio is awarded a contract to develop and produce brakes for the new A7D light attack plane being built as a joint project of the Air Force and Navy. A Goodrich technical writer, Kermit Vandivier, upon seeing what he considered to be irregular testing of the product, initially refused to author a favorable qualification report on the brakes. Corporate pressure eventually compelled Vandivier to write the report; however, he also consulted an attorney who advised him to tell his story to a local FBI agent. Vandivier's story ultimately brought about a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation of Goodrich's testing procedures and prompted a Congressional Hearing on the matter, making The Aircraft Brake Scandal one of the most famous whistle-blowing cases in the literature.
In this classic case study of engineering ethics, as in most such ethics case studies, it is difficult, if not impossible to draw any final conclusions on the matter; however, this course does prompt professional engineers to follow the chain of events, examine their own moral convictions and beliefs, and form their own best responses to the ethical implications of this interesting and complex case.
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Who should attend?
Certificate of Completion
You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 10 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.
Training content
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:
- A timeline of events in the Goodrich aircraft brake case
- An in-depth account of how the events escalated so as to make Vandivier believe that whistle-blowing was the only solution
- The role played by failed technical innovation, poor communication, and erroneous qualification testing in the incident
- Changes that were made-or that should have been made-in inspection, testing, and reporting procedures as a result of this case
- An ethical analysis of the case and points for discussion
- Various scholarly interpretations of the case
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