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You would be surprised how often old technical manuals are useful. Examples from my own work: 1) I was tasked with instrumenting the T58-GE-16 engines in a CH-
by engi_nerd 11y ago
You would be surprised how often old technical manuals are useful. Examples from my own work:
1) I was tasked with instrumenting the T58-GE-16 engines in a CH-46 [0]. So what did I need to inform my sensor placement and selection? Some schematics and technical manuals, all from the late 1960s, all undigitized.
2) I needed to reverse engineer an old test set. The documentation had been lost to time. When I cracked it open, I saw lots of 5400 & 7400 series chips. Now, this is kind of a trite example, because lots of working EEs still have copies of the TTL Data Book at hand. But still, I needed to refer to that old tome when working on this project.
3) When I worked at a NASA contractor, a primary piece of equipment failed. We needed a replacement in a hurry. Fortunately, someone had kept the older version of this system around. It dated from 1959 (!) but the manual was still around, too. A quick read through that manual got us back in business.
Technology never dies [1]. But without the manuals to understand that technology, things become much harder when you need to use that technology again.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Vertol_CH-46_Sea_Knight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Vertol_CH-46_Sea_Knight
[1]: http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/02/04/133188723/tools-never-die-waddaya-mean-never http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2011/02/04/133188723/to...
- phrogdriver 11y agoThank you for 0), you may be able to guess why from my user name.
- engi_nerd 11y agoI was working on instrumentation for testing an IR suppression system for the Phrog's exhaust. Here [0] is the exact aircraft (BuNo 152578) sitting at the Pax River NAS museum, with the IR suppression attached (and a nice big bundle of our thermocouple wiring, too). From what I could find in the records, this was either the 4th or 5th time the Navy had tried something like this, and the results were less than promising. [0]: http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/3/0/8/1691803.jpg http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/3/0/8/16...
- nickpsecurity 11y agoYou'd be surprised how true that is even for computers: http://www.pcworld.com/article/249951/if_it_aint_broke_dont_fix_it_ancient_computers_in_use_today.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/249951/if_it_aint_broke_dont_... It's why I keep reposting links like the Bitsavers manuals just in case someone needs them one day.
- engi_nerd 11y agoI personally wouldn't be surprised, as we still carry the legacy of the original IBM PC around.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoYes, we do despite Intel and IBM attempts to rid us of it. Then there's the other side's legacy. ;) https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257 https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2349257
- engi_nerd 11y ago> Quality only happens when someone is responsible for it When our test aircraft were being delivered, me and the other guys who work on the instro systems would ask, "Who was the asshole?" In other words, who took it upon themselves to be the person who made sure that things came together properly during buildup and checkout? The one aircraft we got where no one had stepped up for instrumentation and been the asshole has proven to be the most problematic of all the aircraft. Maybe not the most elegant way to put it, but there you have it.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoI believe it haha