Old school fatigue testing | FerrariChat

Old school fatigue testing

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by JCR, Jun 21, 2012.

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  1. JCR

    JCR F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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  2. White Knight

    White Knight Formula 3

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    HOLY %$^@.

    My jaw literally dropped. That place is insane. Being a relatively young test engineer, seeing that kind of thing has me just shaking my head.

    Very, very cool pictures.
     
  3. jcurry

    jcurry Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    Mechanical load gauges. Likely used as a means to quickly check load distribution and hysteresis within the whiffle tree. Sometimes 'old school' is the most efficient way to get things done! Reminds me of my college internship at the Air Force Structures Test Facility at WPAFB, a long time ago.
     
  4. tritone

    tritone F1 Veteran Silver Subscribed

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    Fantastically cool pix!

    Could make a sweet noir film there in dusky light.......sounds must be awesome in that volume of space also....(daydreams....)

    On another commercial note; I can see turning that space into the most incredible condominiums you can imagine, the lofts would be insane.....

    And finally; isn't that sort of research done all 'virtual' now? Spasso? Any guesses on the timeframe for that facility?
     
  5. Ferrari Envy

    Ferrari Envy Formula Junior

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    notice the computer in the last pic, and the computer behind it, and the other electronic gadgets behind it. they cant be that old
     
  6. jcurry

    jcurry Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGsXPmA0WA[/ame]
     
  7. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    They used to call it the "Iron Bird". In light of the 787's construction, would the new one be called the "Plastic Bird"? :D
     
  8. jcurry

    jcurry Two Time F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    I believe the 'Iron Bird' referred to the systems test article, whose only resemblence to an airplane was that there was a longitudinal beam (the fuselage) and a lateral beam (the wing). The simple beams were used to hang the various systems, e.g. hydraulics/electrical/possibly cables, in order to perform early testing of the systems architecture. I don't recall a specific name for the fatigue test article.
     
  9. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    You're right, but I've also heard "Iron Bird" applied secondarily to the fatigue test article. It is true that it is usually just called the "fatigue test article", not very creative.
     
  10. James_Woods

    James_Woods F1 World Champ

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    Remember the James Stewert movie (with Marlene Dietrich) where he was the aero engineer convinced that the tail would fall off the new airliner?

    They flexed that test fuselage into the ground for days to simulate it.

    I believe this was inspired by the BOAC Comet disasters of the 1950s - sadly, even though the Comet's days were ended as an airliner, they did fix the problem, and it served the RAC for years as a sub spotter and AWACS platform.
     
  11. Gatorrari

    Gatorrari F1 World Champ Silver Subscribed

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    That was "No Highway in the Sky", which still has not been issued on DVD. While it seems to have been inspired by the Comet disasters, the Nevil Shute book on which the movie was based preceded the Comet situation by several years, so the similarities are coincidental.
     
  12. tritone

    tritone F1 Veteran Silver Subscribed

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  13. donv

    donv Two Time F1 World Champ Owner Rossa Subscribed

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    Those are tremendous pictures! However, testing is still done that way even here. I watched a stress test of a modified 757 once-- they loaded it up with pallets of wood chips (I think) and watched the fuselage bend. Of course, they used lasers to measure it, but you could see the wrinkling and buckling with the naked eye.
     

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