DALE G asked Laurence E. Dahners:

...continued. Besides being more difficult to stand or walk I also have swollen feet and ankles. I realize that you can't diagnose one you have never seen but I was wondering if you could give me any clues? Dale G. Bond redbishop@aol.com p.s. doesn't seem rational to buy a lear jet, stick on rocket motors, and take it into vacuum. Hawaiin island hopper became a convertible a few years ago. No?

Laurence E. Dahners I think it's unlikely that the plate is the cause of the symptoms. Swollen feet and ankles are more likely signs of heart or kidney disease so you should have a general checkup for those. If it were to be some kind of reaction to the plate, that would be more likely with a stainless steel plate than a titanium plate. You could ask the surgeon which type of plate it is and, if your health otherwise checks out good, consider having the plate removed (which of course has some risks of its own.)

For the Hawaii jet that lost part of its fuselage a while back the "(NTSB) concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue exacerbated by crevice corrosion. The aircraft was 19 years old and operated in a coastal environment, with exposure to salt and humidity."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_A...

I don't think that increased relative interior pressure from exposure to vacuum (in the absence of air turbulence due to flight) would be as problematic, but of course I can't be sure. Air pressure at sea level is 15 psi and at 30,000 ft is 4.4psi so that's already a good part of the difference to vacuum. The tires on your car will tolerate 30-45psi, so I would hope an airframe would take similar pressure.

Laury Dahners

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