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Titan is fairly akin to modern software engineering, there's a lot of behaviours in the company that certainly resonates. Mechanical and structural engineers do

Titan is fairly akin to modern software engineering, there's a lot of behaviours in the company that certainly resonates. Mechanical and structural engineers don't behave like this 99% of the time.

deleted 3y ago
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mbritton72 3y ago
I heard pressure testing of the carbon fiber wasn't done. They relied on sensors to detect delamination instead. In software engineering, a component is both created and unit tested with tests on relevant functionality. Delamination sensors are poor compensation for a missing test. They probably didn't test the delamination sensors, either.
- ummonk 3y ago
  As the article mentions though, one of the issues with using carbon fiber for this is that unlike titanium, it weakens with each pressure test.
  - trilbyglens 3y ago
    Also that you can't very effectively model a composite materiál the way you can a solid single material.
davidw 3y ago
To be fair, most modern software engineering doesn't directly lead to someone dying, so in a lot of cases, it makes economic sense to try and push out that additional feature quickly rather than combing every line for potential bugs. Most customers are going to go with the product with more features even if there are a few more bugs, compared with one with zero bugs and much less functionality.
- userbinator 3y ago
  Depends how severe the bugs are. If they're rare edge-case ones that won't result in significant loss of data or functionality, I can believe that; but I've seen far more instances where the product grows so many buggy features that it becomes barely usable as the bugs start affecting core functionality, while the additional features are basically useless to me.
  - davidw 3y ago
    Sure, there's a line where there are too many bugs. It's just a different line than in something where lives are at stake.
gloryjulio 3y ago
I would certainly NOT apply what I did in the job in this kind things. They are of different leagues.

Titan is fairly akin to modern software engineering, there's a lot of behaviours in the company that certainly resonates. Mechanical and structural engineers don't behave like this 99% of the time.

deleted 3y ago

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mbritton72 3y ago

I heard pressure testing of the carbon fiber wasn't done. They relied on sensors to detect delamination instead. In software engineering, a component is both created and unit tested with tests on relevant functionality. Delamination sensors are poor compensation for a missing test. They probably didn't test the delamination sensors, either.

ummonk 3y ago
As the article mentions though, one of the issues with using carbon fiber for this is that unlike titanium, it weakens with each pressure test.
- trilbyglens 3y ago
  Also that you can't very effectively model a composite materiál the way you can a solid single material.

davidw 3y ago

To be fair, most modern software engineering doesn't directly lead to someone dying, so in a lot of cases, it makes economic sense to try and push out that additional feature quickly rather than combing every line for potential bugs. Most customers are going to go with the product with more features even if there are a few more bugs, compared with one with zero bugs and much less functionality.

userbinator 3y ago
Depends how severe the bugs are. If they're rare edge-case ones that won't result in significant loss of data or functionality, I can believe that; but I've seen far more instances where the product grows so many buggy features that it becomes barely usable as the bugs start affecting core functionality, while the additional features are basically useless to me.
- davidw 3y ago
  Sure, there's a line where there are too many bugs. It's just a different line than in something where lives are at stake.

gloryjulio 3y ago

I would certainly NOT apply what I did in the job in this kind things. They are of different leagues.