 |
| NASA F-15 Eagle |
The F-15 was originally built by McDonnell-Douglas, but that company has now been absorbed by Boeing. 1200 of these planes have been built. Top speed is Mach 2.5.
The picture comes from a post on Defence Blog which included this line:
The F-15’s manufacturing process has also evolved over the years to include digital design and automation and tooling, including revolutionary full-size determinant assembly advanced manufacturing processes.
"full-size determinant assembly advanced manufacturing processes"? What the heck is that? Boeing explains:
Determinant assembly is a process that allows for quicker assembly by using features of the parts, such as drilled holes, to quickly align components without the use of additional tooling to aid with alignment. Lego toys or an Erector set are simple examples of determinant assembly.
It's kind of obvious to anyone who has ever built anything. I suspect Boeing is so hide-bound that it required an internal civil war to implement even the most obvious improvements, and since it was such an ordeal to get people to start using it, they had to dress it up with some fancy language.
No comments:
Post a Comment