The Computer in the Stress and Design Offices

Extract

In this final presentation in this symposium I hope to relate some of the present and future developments in computer applications to the everyday world of an engineering design office. The first engineering industry to make extensive use of the computer in design was, I believe, the aircraft industry. In the late 1940's and early 50's digital and analogue computers revolutionised the treatment of aeroelasticity and since that time the spread of computer methods of analysis and design has been rapid. Until recently these developments have been erratic and badly co-ordinated and even today there is no aircraft firm to my knowledge, either in this country or the USA, which realises more than a small fraction of the potential efficiency in design which could be provided by the computers at its disposal. In the past two or three years this fact has become more widely appreciated and I believe that the really significant steps forward are being taken at this moment. The previous papers have shown clearly the possible extent of the computer revolution in the easily foreseeable future. I hope to illustrate, through a specific example, the influence of this revolution on the activities and on the men employed in an aircraft design office.