🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan4.171213.11272@ke4zv.uucp> gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)  
writes:
> In article <ewright.725666125@convex.convex.com> ewright@convex.com (Edward  
V. Wright) writes:
> >
> Most engineering *is* paperwork, or workstation work today. Otherwise
> it's just tinkering on a wing and a prayer. You have to bend metal to
> *test* your engineering, but bending metal *isn't* engineering. It's
> fabrication done by tradesmen.

I can't let this go by.  This is a common attitude in America.  It
leads to low pay for production engineers and inefficient production
methods etc. etc.  Result is the current economic morass with most 
production going overseas.  

I think engineering must consider how something is to be made.  The
most elegant design is useless if it can't be manufactured.  
Knowledge of what can be made is obtained by bending metal, or
at least by interacting with those who do.

This probably has nothing to do with space.  But then maybe it
has a lot to do with why no really new space rocket designs have 
come out in the last 30 years except for the star-crossed shuttle.
--
Thomas Clarke
Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central FL
12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32826
(407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, clarke@acme.ucf.edu