On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:13:24 -0800 (PST), M wrote:

On Dec 18, 1:14 pm, WolfRat wrote:


A far as "bang for the buck" the B-52 is the best airplane
the Air Force ever purchased

A friend of mine who's an aerospace engineer (used to work for
McDonald Douglas) told me that the older design often has stronger
structure than newer ones. He said in the old days the engineers had
very few tools and models for stress analysis of complex structure,
and they often overdesigned and resulted in planes that're much
stronger than the certification calls for. These days with advanced
computer model, if the certification calls for say max 3.8G and the
design goal is 15% above the certification limit, the engineers can
come up with a structure that'll break very close 4.4G, nothing more
and nothing less. The benefit of this is lighter weight and better
fuel efficiency, but it also means
the structure is not as overbuilt as older planes.

**********************************************
M

Your correct. In earlier days they used a slide rule to design and
built the birds very strong so they wouldn't fail in test phase and
when released to Squadrons.

Now with design computers they build new birds as light as possible to
meet design specs. They then fly bird in test phase and anything that
breaks they beef up. Result is the best performing bird they can
design.

This is just a laymans description but all should understand it
whether they are a Aeronautical Engineer or not )

Big John