Compuer-assisted design is common today-we could not live without it. It enables engineeers to test designs before building stuff, and saves enormous amounts of time and money. i recall reading that either CalTech or UCLA build an analogue computer that was used to optimize wing designs=and this was first used by Douglas aircraft to design the DC-3. Anybody know?
I see aircraft design getting very sophisticated , from the mid-1930’s on…what are the chances of a solitary genius (like Howrd Hughes) designing a breakthrough aircrat in his basement? Very unlikely? (Yes or No)?
Well the first DC3 flew in late 1935 (per Wiki). That predates the first electronic computers certainly…what would you consider an analog computer? A hand-cranked adding machine for example?
Burt Rutan did exactly that. The solutions to his space plane design were not found in a computer. The rotating wing and straight down re-entry was pure creativity.
Definition of computer has changed a bit over the years:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-445/ch2-3.htm
I’d be shocked if they didn’t use wind-tunnel models in designing wings for the first DC-3.
The earliest use of computers in designing things, that I know of, dates back to the Tucker. They ran the car through what was called a “bridge.” This was an upside down U shaped device with marked rods that were moved until they touched the car, the numbers were written down and then fed into a computer which calculated the necessary curves for making the dies.
One could call this CAD work, but its certainly a far cry from what we do today.
Yes.
Plane that Changed the World (The)
NOVA joins the 50th anniversary celebration of the DC-3—the plane that revolutionized commercial air travel, served gallantly in World War II and is called the most important plane ever built.
Original broadcast date: 12/17/85
Topic: technology/aeronautics & flight
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If you can get your hands on the above PBS show you’ll see the Douglas engineers describe using a wind tunnel at one of the universitys. Actually they first used the tunnel on the DC-1 (a prototype) and the DC-2 (which did go into production).
There is no way a wind tunnel is a “computer”, analog or otherwise. They would use it instead of a computer but it is not a computer in any sense of the word. Or you could say a piece of cheese qualifies as a computer.
Well, if the cheese came up with the right answer I’d certainly consider it.
Not my words, look at the quote.
Analogue computers. I remember reading that mechanical analogue computers were used before the Second World War, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that they were used on the DC-3.
On reading the Wiki link from that page for ‘differential analyser’, I see that they might have been a little later than 1935 though.
What? You never heard of a cheesy computer?
Question: What color is this cheese?
I look at it and there, in front of my eyes is the answer: It’s yellow!
Question: How much does this piece of cheese weigh?
I put it on the scale and there is the answer: 1 lb
Question: How much does this piece of cheese cost?
I look at the label and right thee is the price: $4.79
Question: What ingredients does this cheese have?
I look at the label and see it has some milk and a whole lot of chemicals.
This is a truly incredible piece of cheese.
How is that different from a wind tunnel where you do experiments and get results?
That’s like asking how much power it takes to move my boat through the water and then putting a dynamometer on a towline and measuring it and saying the dynamometer is “computing”. No, measuring is not computing.
All that tells you is that “analogue computer” is an extremely general term. Which it is.
I do not think anyone would consider a wind tunnel, or a speedometer or any measuring equipment a “Computer”.
You would have to get to a slide rule or similar device and, while the term may be strictly correct, even then most people would say it was a bit of an abuse of the term.
The term “computer” whether analog or digital, really would only commonly be used for very complex electronic or mechanical computers. Nobody would call a handheld calculator a “computer”.
Actually, prior to the invention of electronic devices after WW II the term “computer” was the job title of a person who did calculations with pencil and paper.
Settimng aside the discussion of ‘what is a computer?’…
Well, then what was the first airlane designed entirely with CAD, in the sense of a commercially available package installed on one or more computers having at least a screen, keyboard, and GUI?
I nominate the following; The Boeing 777. (First delivery 1995)
I am looking right now at my copy of “Twenty-First Century Jet - The Making and Marketing of the Boeing 777” which I picked up on a tour of the Boeing plant several years back.
The overleaf implies, and seems to my memory correct, that this may have been the first airplane to be designed entirely on CAD (on multiple machines at design sites around the world). It also appears to be the first airplane to be flown entirely “by wire” ; i.e. electronic remote controls instead of hydraulics all running from the cockpit.
Anyone have an earlier candidate?
IANAAH but wiki shows a variety of airplanes that were fly by wire well before the Boeing 777:
Starting with the Avro Vulcan in the 1950s.
I knew that the X29 was FBW and that was in the mid 1980s.
The X-15, IIRC, was FBW. Neil Armstrong helped to develop the technology and pushed it for use in the Apollo program. Interestingly enough, when he first sugested the idea to the Apollo engineers, they didn’t think that it would work, until he pointed put that he’d been flying planes with it before he joined NASA.
‘By wire’ and “entirely by wire” are two different things. If a cockpit has a radio with a twist knob, it is not total fly by wire. If there is a hydraulic control, of any sort, or a push pull cable of any sort, it is not entirely flown by wire. Main flight controls, yeah, that was done a while back. It is just words and bragging rights. I was the first person to sail a sail boat down the entire Arkansas River Navigation Channel without an engine. That was in 78. Lot of boats went before me, lots of sail boats eve, but… Not on sail alone. I was first. So, is/was the B777 first? I don’t really know. That word ‘entirely’ is really pesky.
But you all have fun anyway.
We were using computers in WW-II to decode German Enigma messages. They were designed and built in my home town.
Yes, I know, but the common language shift of the meaning of the word didn’t happen until after the war.