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Boeing's secret stealth fighter jet from the ’60s was decades ahead of its time
Without any context, you might look at this photo and think, "that's a mockup of a modern stealth fighter jet" — perhaps a first stab at an F-22 or an F-35. But this is very different: what you're seeing here is Boeing's "Quiet Bird," a classified project from the early 1960s — yes, the early 1960s — to develop a military aircraft with an extremely low radar profile. That kind of stealth technology didn't end up seeing wide use in small military aircraft… (www.theverge.com) और अधिक...
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Would have been outrageous if Boeing had finished their SST, also!!
Old news again wish that people would stay current on this site.
I agree.
However, there is still value in revisiting the 1960's if only for the remarkable (and sometimes audacious, i.e. Pluto Project)feats of US engineering. The 1960's saw theory-into-reality on time scales that today would be impossible, and w/o the use of the software tools employed today.
However, there is still value in revisiting the 1960's if only for the remarkable (and sometimes audacious, i.e. Pluto Project)feats of US engineering. The 1960's saw theory-into-reality on time scales that today would be impossible, and w/o the use of the software tools employed today.
Speaking as one who lived thru the "hands on" era into the "let the software do it" era let me offer some observations. In the old school you learned about the relationship between the mathematics and the reality. You knew, and why, that cylindrical symmetry meant a solution with Bessel functions. Todays youth "don't get it." Trying to mentor todays young engineers in thermodynamics is really tough - they have been taught 'to the test.' They are of the mindset "What is the path of least resistance to a diploma." Once they take the final exam in class they forget the material because all they did was cram for the test at the last minute. Also, if Matlab can't solve it then "it can't be solved."
I have personally seen the wheel recreated 3 times in the course of my 38+ year career at a major aerospace company. I finally retired this past spring when I found out they were having freshouts (new engineers) in another building doing calcutations that I had been done in the 1980's and had been scanned and put onto the dept document server. Mgmt's excuse was "it's good training for them." I told the kids where the "answers" were along with the computer code and the mathematical justification for the code. They were amazed that they were totally clueless and going down a fruitless path. They were also angry that mgmt provided them no guidance on how to solve the problem. They said they would rather have spent the time in a conference room with me teaching them the theory rather than having to spend weeks doing something that was completely wrong and worthless.
One of my former fellow greybreads showed me a mgmt magazine article from 20 years ago stating that (as best I can remember it) "in the future, line managers will be in charge of workers doing work and using tools that the manager will not understand. And the technolgy workers will be working for a management structure that does not understand the technological underpinnings of the products they produce and sell." That future is today's aerospace business in the USA. There's no corporate memory. How sad.
Hey - he was in charge of an "Iron Horse" company, he should be able to run an airline.
Hey - I know how to fly a C172, I should be able to fly a B787.
That's my rant for today.
I have personally seen the wheel recreated 3 times in the course of my 38+ year career at a major aerospace company. I finally retired this past spring when I found out they were having freshouts (new engineers) in another building doing calcutations that I had been done in the 1980's and had been scanned and put onto the dept document server. Mgmt's excuse was "it's good training for them." I told the kids where the "answers" were along with the computer code and the mathematical justification for the code. They were amazed that they were totally clueless and going down a fruitless path. They were also angry that mgmt provided them no guidance on how to solve the problem. They said they would rather have spent the time in a conference room with me teaching them the theory rather than having to spend weeks doing something that was completely wrong and worthless.
One of my former fellow greybreads showed me a mgmt magazine article from 20 years ago stating that (as best I can remember it) "in the future, line managers will be in charge of workers doing work and using tools that the manager will not understand. And the technolgy workers will be working for a management structure that does not understand the technological underpinnings of the products they produce and sell." That future is today's aerospace business in the USA. There's no corporate memory. How sad.
Hey - he was in charge of an "Iron Horse" company, he should be able to run an airline.
Hey - I know how to fly a C172, I should be able to fly a B787.
That's my rant for today.
>>> And the technolgy workers will be working for a management structure that does not understand the technological underpinnings of the products they produce and sell." That future is today's aerospace business in the USA
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That's not only in the aerospace industry, that happens in many other areas as well, like IT; most of the IT bosses I've worked for were like that...
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That's not only in the aerospace industry, that happens in many other areas as well, like IT; most of the IT bosses I've worked for were like that...
I fully understand and share your burnout. It's too bad. Teachers and mentors such as yourself are valued and needed. Your role was to make it interesting, exciting. Things definitely have changed.
Not everyone is aware of every aviation related article...except perhaps yourself?
