It was true that the start of 1995 felt a little out of control in the Menasco engineering offices, and to make matters worse the edict had come down from the heavens that a photoelastic model of the new design of the V-22 Nose Landing Gear would not be created and that the FSD model should be sufficient.
There were a few sideways looks about this, and a multitude of questions and concerns in the trenches.
Larry told me that it was more of a schedule thing than anything to do with cost, that the logjam of drawings over the previous few months, and the focus on "small" drawings was the culprit, the large component drawings had been created too late for any lead time for the plastic model. It had been questioned, both through the vendor and the prime, if realistically any useful information could be obtained from the study late in the program.
I suspect in some ways, people in the engineering hierarchy believed that we were going to get this thing right the first time.
Hold that thought.
The pair of us knew that this could put us in a real pickle with the calculation of stress concentrations, mainly because the FSD design was very different for the main fitting component, the new design was not only a lot stiffer, but it also had some large features missing from the FSD, a much stiffer cruciform shape, and three large holes in the cylinder for the WOW switches.
I can recall a serious discussion with Larry, and he decreed that to mitigate our risk, we should consider a photostress coating in the areas of concern on the actual metal test item, and that this would serve to provide stress concentration values in conjunction with strain gauge results.
Magical thinking.
This was given the green light by the powers that be, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Tensor
Funny old thing, life.
Two decades later, and actually longer for the piece of technology that I have just re-acquired in the last few weeks. I've not mentioned it in the blog yet, and I will not be mentioning it here for a year (in blog years). It was a piece of kit that replaced every item of my computing apparatus at work in 1996, but it did not happen as far as the diary account, for another year yet.
Suffice to say, I have one here in 2016, and I'm playing with it again, and here, even though two decades have passed, it is still, in my opinion, the best handheld computer device ever.
I will probably mention it soon, on the blog, but there's a year of stuff to process before that.
Please continue.
Two decades later, and actually longer for the piece of technology that I have just re-acquired in the last few weeks. I've not mentioned it in the blog yet, and I will not be mentioning it here for a year (in blog years). It was a piece of kit that replaced every item of my computing apparatus at work in 1996, but it did not happen as far as the diary account, for another year yet.
Suffice to say, I have one here in 2016, and I'm playing with it again, and here, even though two decades have passed, it is still, in my opinion, the best handheld computer device ever.
I will probably mention it soon, on the blog, but there's a year of stuff to process before that.
Please continue.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Abramisms Part 1.
Abramisms Part One : Questions, Questions.
"Do you know what you're doing?"
"How ya doing me old tater?"
"Am I keeping you up?"
"Do you like working here?"
"How ya doing me old fruit?"
"How ya doing me old flower?"
"Is everything under control?"
"Are you feeling sweepy?"
"You do know what you're doing don't you? {pause} don't you??"
Uncle Larry.
There was a short period in 1995 that the Menasco stress office could be compared directly to the Marie Celeste. It was adrift and deserted in a dishevelled but seaworthy condition, under partial sail, with nobody on board, and her lifeboat missing.
Ok, it wasn't that bad.
Mark Clemente had jumped ship for the calmer waters of DeHavilland and another of the capable analysts, Mong Lim Shim (often referred to as Long Thin Shim) was off representing Menasco somewhere else. The chap that I had inherited the Fokker 100 work from, Steve Harding, was also off to DeHavilland and it was sort of odd that the bulk of the work was being undertaken by myself, Larry Abram and Gerry Kouverianos and a job shopper from Boeing, Gary.
It did, at times, feel like some engineering buddy movie, with often what felt like an efficient symbiosis between the "three musketeers" with Gerry and Larry playing good cop, bad cop dealing with me, to keep me hard at work, but also to keep my spirits high.
It leads me to introduce something that is fundamental to the "feel" of the Menasco Design office at that time, with a direct focus on the Stress group. The boss, Lancashire lad Larry Abram would provide comic relief at most times for most of us, although truth be told, often the tension he was alleviating had been caused by his good self in the first place.
In time, myself and new additions to the Stress Office in the years that followed, would collate the punchlines of these comic relief moments, magical statements that perhaps you would have had to be there to truly appreciate, but for those that do remember, we collected them using one common noun.
Abramisms.
Ok, it wasn't that bad.
Mark Clemente had jumped ship for the calmer waters of DeHavilland and another of the capable analysts, Mong Lim Shim (often referred to as Long Thin Shim) was off representing Menasco somewhere else. The chap that I had inherited the Fokker 100 work from, Steve Harding, was also off to DeHavilland and it was sort of odd that the bulk of the work was being undertaken by myself, Larry Abram and Gerry Kouverianos and a job shopper from Boeing, Gary.
It did, at times, feel like some engineering buddy movie, with often what felt like an efficient symbiosis between the "three musketeers" with Gerry and Larry playing good cop, bad cop dealing with me, to keep me hard at work, but also to keep my spirits high.
It leads me to introduce something that is fundamental to the "feel" of the Menasco Design office at that time, with a direct focus on the Stress group. The boss, Lancashire lad Larry Abram would provide comic relief at most times for most of us, although truth be told, often the tension he was alleviating had been caused by his good self in the first place.
In time, myself and new additions to the Stress Office in the years that followed, would collate the punchlines of these comic relief moments, magical statements that perhaps you would have had to be there to truly appreciate, but for those that do remember, we collected them using one common noun.
Abramisms.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Tubular
It is interesting to me that in 1993 I had been very much energized by the release of Tubular Bells II on CD but completely missed the release of the album Songs of Distant Earth the following year. It interests me because a common point of musical reference for myself, and another chap who was working in the Menasco stress office, Mark Clemente, was the genius of Mike Oldfield.
It was released in November of 1994, but I realise from my diary that I had sat down for a few long chats with Mark during his last week at Menasco in the December and perhaps at that busy time, neither of us knew of the existence of the new album.
The pace of work at Menasco was frenetic, and as I mentioned, the drawing release schedule for the V-22 had basically worn everyone out, so the upcoming Christmas holiday was a very welcome thing, and for Mark Clemente, and a bunch of others in the design office, 1995 would be a transitional year as they migrated to DeHavilland to work on the proposal for the DHC-8 400 series.
If I flash forward a few years, to 1998, I was again stoked to learn of a new album from Mike Oldfield which of course was Tubular Bells III, however, during those extremely busy years, where I too would be gainfully employed at Menasco on the 400 series MLG, I had missed a second significant Mike Oldfield album release entitled Voyager.
It was not until a year or so after that, that Mark and myself were once again working together and during one of our musical chats he informed me of those two albums and it was an amazing feeling of emotion for me, especially with the magnificent album Songs of Distant Earth, that I had finally discovered my "lost years" of Mike Oldfield.
It was released in November of 1994, but I realise from my diary that I had sat down for a few long chats with Mark during his last week at Menasco in the December and perhaps at that busy time, neither of us knew of the existence of the new album.
The pace of work at Menasco was frenetic, and as I mentioned, the drawing release schedule for the V-22 had basically worn everyone out, so the upcoming Christmas holiday was a very welcome thing, and for Mark Clemente, and a bunch of others in the design office, 1995 would be a transitional year as they migrated to DeHavilland to work on the proposal for the DHC-8 400 series.
If I flash forward a few years, to 1998, I was again stoked to learn of a new album from Mike Oldfield which of course was Tubular Bells III, however, during those extremely busy years, where I too would be gainfully employed at Menasco on the 400 series MLG, I had missed a second significant Mike Oldfield album release entitled Voyager.
It was not until a year or so after that, that Mark and myself were once again working together and during one of our musical chats he informed me of those two albums and it was an amazing feeling of emotion for me, especially with the magnificent album Songs of Distant Earth, that I had finally discovered my "lost years" of Mike Oldfield.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
A Ticking Box
I've just read an entire month of my diary for the August of 1994 and I obviously had difficulty at the time coming to terms with the fact that I had to work rather hard to gather my jobshopper dollars at the landing gear emporium.
Yet, the diary is full of light and they were indeed happy times regardless of the workload, and it was apparent that in quite an uncontrolled way, things were predominantly under control.
I had finished two different types of spectrum reduction programs, one for the FractuREsearch damage tolerance program from Mister Broek and the other for quick spreadsheet fatigue checks of various fibres on the periphery of sections. At the time the Menasco fatigue program was limited to a single fibre, so my spreadsheet could accelerate the identification of the critical zone and we could hone in.
If my stress concentration factors were correct...
I say things were predominantly under control as the design office were having some major issues with the drawing schedule for the upcoming CDR and it seemed that in the great scheme of things, a drawing of a washer carried the same weight in the schedule as a major structural component. It was a game of numbers for them, and with the strength, fatigue and damage tolerance analysis, it was a game of numbers for me.
I've said before about the DTA presentation for the CDR being more of a theoretical or "paper" report to tick the box, as with the percentage of completed drawings requirement box, that the number crunchers at both ends were busy trying to satisfy each other so that they could report back to their superiors that everything was on track.
It was true though, that in the September of 1994, everything was predominantly on track for the program, it was the happiest of times because of one major thing.
Nothing had gone wrong yet.
Yet, the diary is full of light and they were indeed happy times regardless of the workload, and it was apparent that in quite an uncontrolled way, things were predominantly under control.
I had finished two different types of spectrum reduction programs, one for the FractuREsearch damage tolerance program from Mister Broek and the other for quick spreadsheet fatigue checks of various fibres on the periphery of sections. At the time the Menasco fatigue program was limited to a single fibre, so my spreadsheet could accelerate the identification of the critical zone and we could hone in.
If my stress concentration factors were correct...
I say things were predominantly under control as the design office were having some major issues with the drawing schedule for the upcoming CDR and it seemed that in the great scheme of things, a drawing of a washer carried the same weight in the schedule as a major structural component. It was a game of numbers for them, and with the strength, fatigue and damage tolerance analysis, it was a game of numbers for me.
I've said before about the DTA presentation for the CDR being more of a theoretical or "paper" report to tick the box, as with the percentage of completed drawings requirement box, that the number crunchers at both ends were busy trying to satisfy each other so that they could report back to their superiors that everything was on track.
It was true though, that in the September of 1994, everything was predominantly on track for the program, it was the happiest of times because of one major thing.
Nothing had gone wrong yet.
File one away. Part Two.
It was around 7.30pm that night when I arrived home and John phoned me, there was a distinct shake in his voice and he really did sound quite distressed.
Apparently, this is what transpired after the morning jolly phone call :
The faceless person sitting in front of John, who had initially taken the phone call, and had known it was me, sat, watched and listened to the entire event and had immediately scurried back to the Chief of Stress at Dowty and reported what had transpired from his point of view.
The Chief of Stress had then arranged an "emergency" meeting for all the members of the stress office in the small meeting room, everyone filed in, wondering if they were being made redundant or something, and it began.
John described to me how horrible it was, that the Chief was literally red and shaking with anger, that he was telling everyone in the room (but directing it all squarely at John) that none of them should be talking to the competition about the secret things, and that from then on, there would be a closer watch of everyone (directed solely at John again) about infringements which could result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal.
Yet John's name was never mentioned in the meeting.
After the meeting, John had gone back to the Chief's desk and attempted to explain, but was fundamentally ignored, there was a sense that something was very broken.
In the evening, after the call from John, I called the Chief up and tried to explain, but even after all the time I had spent at Dowty working for him, five years or more, he would not listen to me either, and he terminated the conversation with the darkest of accusations.
I knew there was little use in talking to a man who had made his mind up, I just had to mentally file that one away for future reference regarding him...
...and his pet weasel.
Apparently, this is what transpired after the morning jolly phone call :
The faceless person sitting in front of John, who had initially taken the phone call, and had known it was me, sat, watched and listened to the entire event and had immediately scurried back to the Chief of Stress at Dowty and reported what had transpired from his point of view.
The Chief of Stress had then arranged an "emergency" meeting for all the members of the stress office in the small meeting room, everyone filed in, wondering if they were being made redundant or something, and it began.
John described to me how horrible it was, that the Chief was literally red and shaking with anger, that he was telling everyone in the room (but directing it all squarely at John) that none of them should be talking to the competition about the secret things, and that from then on, there would be a closer watch of everyone (directed solely at John again) about infringements which could result in disciplinary action and possible dismissal.
Yet John's name was never mentioned in the meeting.
After the meeting, John had gone back to the Chief's desk and attempted to explain, but was fundamentally ignored, there was a sense that something was very broken.
In the evening, after the call from John, I called the Chief up and tried to explain, but even after all the time I had spent at Dowty working for him, five years or more, he would not listen to me either, and he terminated the conversation with the darkest of accusations.
I knew there was little use in talking to a man who had made his mind up, I just had to mentally file that one away for future reference regarding him...
...and his pet weasel.
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