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Legendary 747 Designer Joe Sutter Dies Age 95 (stuff.co.nz)
Slashdot reader schwit1 writes: Joe Sutter, Boeing's lead designer for the design and construction of the 747, has passed away at 95. This documentary of the 747 and Joe Sutter is excellent: Jumbo Revolution.
Sutter and his engineers "initially played second fiddle to the more glamorous Boeing development project at the time, the Supersonic Transport (SST)," according to Stuff.co.nz. "But the US government ultimately killed funding for the SST, and the 747 turned into the icon of international long-haul flying that established Boeing's supremacy in commercial aviation for more than two decades after it entered service in January 1970."
Sutter's team completed the roll-out of the 747 in just 29 months -- a record -- and in 1986 Sutter also served on the team investigating the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. "Appalled that NASA's safety standards were lower than those in his commercial airplane world, Sutter was typically vocal in his criticism and pushed a key recommendation of the committee to implement a new safety management system."
Sutter and his engineers "initially played second fiddle to the more glamorous Boeing development project at the time, the Supersonic Transport (SST)," according to Stuff.co.nz. "But the US government ultimately killed funding for the SST, and the 747 turned into the icon of international long-haul flying that established Boeing's supremacy in commercial aviation for more than two decades after it entered service in January 1970."
Sutter's team completed the roll-out of the 747 in just 29 months -- a record -- and in 1986 Sutter also served on the team investigating the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. "Appalled that NASA's safety standards were lower than those in his commercial airplane world, Sutter was typically vocal in his criticism and pushed a key recommendation of the committee to implement a new safety management system."
Sutter's team completed the roll-out of the 747 in just 29 months -- a record
They barely missed it. Actually 33 1/3 months would have been a record.
Can we see more than a "sneak peek"? Why the tease?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
One of my first childhood memories was seeing the cockpit on a 747 in the mid 70's. I was too young to know it was a 747, but I remember going up a spiral staircase, and only the 747 had one. Seeing the cockpit at that early age motivated me to pursue a career in engineering and aviation. Too bad cockpit tours are mostly banned nowadays.
Looks kinda familiar
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
First off 747s are still flying.
Second, my dad was a lead engineer at boeing, and for the 747 he designed the fuel system. It takes a huge team just to design the fuel system. No one person understand the entire plane. No one person could even keep track of all the bolts holes. Building something at that scale is simply a staggering undertaking. Especially when you consider my dad didn't even know how to use a computer. But he had the whole fuel system figured out in his head. And that's probably as much as any one human can bite off on something like this.
Because of that I've always been in awe of professional engineers and boeing in particular. While I might acheieve really cool basic science discoveries as a PI and even lead modest teams of scientists, Nothing I do really works as well as a boeing plane and is not even close to the complexity.
These folks have figured out rules of interaction that let you manage complexity and make sure it all works as a system. Boeing in particular also figured out how to learn from mistakes. It's easy to learn from mistakes if you are one person. But a corprorate culture has to almost grow a new organ to institutionalize a way of not repeating mistakes. In the organizations I'm used to working it this slowly becomes a hell of regulations imposed on individuals that basically prevent work. But at boeing they figured this out somehow so that they still can produce airplanes.
It's really a remarkable social entitity.
So as software engineers you have a lot you owe to the engineers that went before you and invented all the things you take as endemic to software engineering (e.g. requirements documents, unit tests, etc...). Those were all invented long before computers. There's a reason why the masons who build cathedrals where organized into hierachical guilds. It's because you had to create an entitiy to manage the complexity of building lofty arches back then.
it's not all just the skill of one man. The amazing part is it's a skill of teams so large most people don't know each other.
"There's no 'state of sin',"
I don't believe in Nevada either.
Going into space is not safe, yet you will have people lining up at your door to do it.
No sir I dont like it.
During the 747 development, it was found that the wings would oscillate up and down and with a twisting motion, a condition which if allowed to continue and amplify would destroy the airplane.
Some engineers wanted to redo the whole wing.
Sutter's solution was to permanently twist the wing from root to wingtip. It worked, and took much less cash and time than a redesign. Google for "Sutter Twist"
When the 747-8 was designed with the 787-inspired wing, the same problem showed up again. This time, it was cured in the software.
Funny, I saw a documentary on the building of the original 747 just a few days before he died. I knew he was the project manager but didn't know he cured the wing issue with such a simple fix.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
that now Yellon Mask is going the reverse, doing "space travel" without the safety.
Space travel with current technology is inherently unsafe. If you try to do it with the same safety standards as commercial aviation, then you will never launch.
in 1986 Sutter also served on the team investigating the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger. "Appalled that NASA's safety standards were lower than those in his commercial airplane world...
Not to be a pessimist here, but I imagine NASA astronauts sign onto the program with a possibility of death being part of contract. They are dealing with some of the outer limits of our current science and technology in the name of exploration. It's a slightly different thing than a family climbing onto a jumbo jet for a cross-country trip to visit grandma. There a lot more angry surviving family with lawyers in the latter.
http://theageofaerospace.com/d...
'I don't know what it's called. I just know the sound it makes, when it takes a man's life.' ~ Four Leaf Tayback