A nine-year career as a helicopter technician and three years working around budding aeronautical engineers while earning my degree proved one thing to me: sometimes, ignorance is truly bliss. During those years, I got to see what is and is not required for safe flying vehicles. I’ve seen construction materials that are nearly unbelievable in their applications, being light as a feather while being as strong as an iron beam to a six-year-old’s eyes. I’ve seen literal miles of wiring in a helicopter that’s roughly the size of a Chevrolet Astro. I’ve seen the thickness of the outer skin of numerous aircraft, the ability of a Boeing 787’s wing to flex, the coding needed to keep a 747 from entering a Dutch roll, and just how much engine is needed to run a scout helicopter. It is absolutely astonishing to see what engineers, scientists, and technicians can do when it comes to making heavier-than-air vehicles fly safely.
But just like the NHTSA sending another car to it’s doom on a wall in the name of crash survivability, the aviation field has to undergo severe testing to know the limitations of what’s out there. You don’t think they just bolt on a wing and hope for the best, do you? Hell no…Boeing goes out of their way to bend a wing until it breaks, that way they know, without a shadow of a doubt, just what it takes and how much further they need to reduce the envelope to keep hundreds of thousands of passengers safe. There is testing to destruction that has to be done so that engineers know what will happen should the unlikely occur. There are impact tests, birdstrike tests, and yes, even basic crash testing that includes aircraft drop testing. This is just a taste of what aviation engineering is all about. You might want to call your stewardess for a drink about now…
But all the current limits,test data,computer formulas etc used today at one time came from bolt it on and try that,nobody designing aircraft today are smarter than the engineers prior to 1950.
Stop and think about the billions of components designed with a pencil,T Square and slide rule.