Post by Stumpy on Apr 6, 2018 22:33:01 GMT
anyways, benders and dykes won't be coming... it's in the "booking form filter" along with "vegans"...
"It’s 1936 and a truly brilliant aviation designer, RJ Mitchell, has created what was to become a legendary aircraft: the Spitfire. But this is not a story of how effective the plane was, or its capabilities against the more widely produced Hurricane. It’s about why the Hurricane was easier to produce, and how Spitfire manufacturer Supermarine tackled this head on.
In his quest for speed, Mitchell had created a plane with an innovative shape. But its speed also relied on the entire body being flush riveted. When rivets are ‘flush’ with the body of the plane, the surface is extremely smooth – vital for drag reduction at high speed. However, flush riveting was difficult, expensive and time-consuming on a production plane. The alternative was the simple round-headed rivet, but these stick out with a distinctive dome over each rivet, impeding air flow.
Speed is important, but the need to make as many planes as possible was possibly even more important. The Hurricane, with its simple construction and shape was quicker and cheaper to make.
Could Mitchell find a way of making his plane faster to produce, and therefore build more planes? Could some of the many rivets be made into pop rivets without losing speed?
Yes. Spitfire test pilot Jeffrey Quill recounts how they prototyped a ‘pop rivet’ Spitfire by sticking a split pea onto the the many thousands of flush-headed rivets that covered the plane. They then test flew the plane — now 22mph slower.
This was the brilliance. They had used the simplest technologies possible – split peas and some glue – to prototype the effects of different kinds of rivets. From here they were able to progressively scrape off lines of peas, retest, and identify the critical areas. Many unnecessary lines of flush riveting were eliminated over countless hours of testing and flying.
Brilliantly effective – both in performance and time. It saved countless production hours, enabling many more planes to be built. All at the cost of some spilt peas."
Author: Isaac Pinnock