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The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

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Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#21

Post by mannykannot »

segfaultbuserr wrote: post #8

The B-52 design proposal was done in a hotel room over one weekend, the actual engineering took at least 3 years, including "670 days in the wind tunnel". That is not to say the weekend hotel proposal was not an impressive accomplishment in itself, it was. But there's a difference between laying out a software architecture and writing code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-52_Stratofortress#Des... > On Thursday…

I feel it is fair to say that in many ways, the "architecture" of the B-52 was pioneered in Boeing's B-47 (first flight 17 December 1947 - seven months before these meetings.) This was a truly innovative aircraft, unlike many other contemporary designs (from Boeing as well as other manufacturers) which resembled their piston-engined precursors. The initial Boeing proposals for the B-52 look like throwbacks to that approach.

The article briefly mentions that Bob Withington, one of the members of this ad-hoc proposal-redesign team, played a role in the swept-wing design of the B-47, but is otherwise silent on its significance.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-47_Stratojet

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#22

Post by hef19898 »

closewith wrote: post #13
runjake wrote: post #3

The first prototype of the B-52 may have been designed in a weekend. The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). Another HN commenter mentioned GPS being designed over a holiday. But we spent years and years in the military debugging GPS and making it functional. Claiming that some…

> The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). The plane was only ever produced for a decade and the H model was last produced in 1963. Obviously it has been retrofitted with new engines, avionics, armaments, etc, but it's not a fundamentally different plane.

If every thing except the overall form of the fuselage is changed it is a new plane.

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#24

Post by thejosh »

runjake wrote: post #3

The first prototype of the B-52 may have been designed in a weekend. The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). Another HN commenter mentioned GPS being designed over a holiday. But we spent years and years in the military debugging GPS and making it functional. Claiming that some…

One of my favourite (probably misquotes) is "I wrote FAT on an airplane!" from Bill Gates.

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#25

Post by Nick87633 »

jansan wrote: post #6
mikece wrote: post #2

Some of the most successful programs are designed either by one person or a small group of designers who were given the autonomy to do their job. This story reminds me of the origin story of the American GPS system which was designed over a holiday weekend by three engineers. If you want projects to work then give a small, qualified group the room to make decisions and turn them loose. If you want to give the appeara…

Alledgedly a Bugatti W12 and W18 engine was sketched during a train ride on the Shinkansen on an envelope. https://de.hoffmann-speedster.com/media/image/e0/14/3f/Ferdi...

A linear superposition of two or three V6 engines!

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#26

Post by egberts1 »

ip26 wrote: post #15
egberts1 wrote: post #9

I knew it wasn’t. I’ve seen the engineering plat drawings. Surely was not overnight but a cumulative effort of many engineers of many disciplines over many decades. Most notably the airframe framework which makes its longevity more than possible. Will not stoop to a simplistic clickbait.

We love to gloss over the implementation phase of design and valorize the concept phase. I theorize it’s because implementation is a lot more work, and usually lacks a singular hero figure. We make exceptions when there is; see Woz.

Woz is about leveraging technology at low cost.

There are many Woz-like but unheralded program managers that have leverage the vaunted B-52 airframe into something beyond its original purpose.

It is about Woz and a garage business that got its unique notoriety.

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#27

Post by justsomehnguy »

hef19898 wrote: post #22
closewith wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). The plane was only ever produced for a decade and the H model was last produced in 1963. Obviously it has been retrofitted with new engines, avionics, armaments, etc, but it's not a fundamentally different plane.

If every thing except the overall form of the fuselage is changed it is a new plane.

Only if the new plane is not Tu-144 or Buran. Then it's not a new plane, but a stolen one.

/s

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#28

Post by daveslash »

runjake wrote: post #3

The first prototype of the B-52 may have been designed in a weekend. The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). Another HN commenter mentioned GPS being designed over a holiday. But we spent years and years in the military debugging GPS and making it functional. Claiming that some…

Came here to say something similar. My comment being "The word 'designed' is being used very generously here. I would suggest 'conceptualized' as a better word"

Re: The B-52 was designed in a hotel room over one weekend

#29

Post by rgoulter »

hef19898 wrote: post #22
closewith wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The B-52 of today was iteratively designed over decades and the current H models are entirely different planes than earlier models (although structurally very close to the G model). The plane was only ever produced for a decade and the H model was last produced in 1963. Obviously it has been retrofitted with new engines, avionics, armaments, etc, but it's not a fundamentally different plane.

If every thing except the overall form of the fuselage is changed it is a new plane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
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