Killer Tag

I was working long hours on the tailcone tank loads report, the foundation for the secondary internal loads and stress reports.

It was the tradition back then to submit your report to the boss, Barry Levoir, and he would take it away for a few days and do a thorough check, usually, each problem would be identified by a small post it note attached to the page that was in question.

It was a good system, you would get your report back and work through all the tags, replacing the pages (yet keeping the tags attached) and then returning the report for the sign off process.

The load summary tables would show limit loads, ultimate loads, tire closure and strut stroke associated with the load case. The rolling radius of the tire would be subsequently used in the wheel load distribution program and then progressed into the internal loads (stick model) report.

Occasionally, a simple post it note, attached to an early page of the submitted report would be the dreaded "killer tag" and here, on my first submission, was just such a tag. It was simple, tire closure, XT as we called it, should have been based on limit, or applied loads, and for my limit load table it was.

However, on my ultimate load table, I had generated my XT based on the factored loads when they should have been the same as in the limit load table.

In essence, my first killer tag affected about two weeks of work and consequently a mad scramble to get reports back on schedule, I have known killer tags to affect massive reports and fortunately, my first experience was a small, yet valued, lesson in consequences of a simple slip up.

Of course, it would not be the last.