3 ms·
Cheap Chinese phones get to take the mass production benefits of the iPhone and Android markets and then *relax* most of the requirements to get cheaper parts.
by ncallaway 3y ago
Cheap Chinese phones get to take the mass production benefits of the iPhone and Android markets and then *relax* most of the requirements to get cheaper parts.
The military tends to *tighten* the requirements when it’s procuring parts, so more things end up as custom development.
I have no idea what ratio something like an F-35 is for COTS vs custom hardware, though.
- bumby 3y agoI’m not sure there’s much relaxing in quality control in aerospace. The specs are already pretty tight.
- rbanffy 3y agoYou could, but usually that causes lower performance. When building an airframe, a gram not needed is a gram wasted. In fighters it's far less stringent than spacecraft - for those, even a screw one turn longer than needed is something to avoid.
- bumby 3y ago(FWIW, when I'm saying 'aerospace' I'm using it to jointly refer to "space" and "aeronautics," just in case I gave the impression I was only talking about spaceflight.) Those are technical specs, not quality specs. The quality specs would deal with things like machining tolerances, manufacturer traceability, etc. Point being, if Pratt & Whitney took a seal design from another aircraft to apply to the F-35, it's not like they aren't already tracking the tolerances, material compatibility, etc. When I worked in aerospace, it was very rare that we went to the machine shop to ask for them to make a bespoke component.