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I misread “uncrewed” as “unscrewed” and for a moment this became a much stranger, better aerospace story. Not autonomous aircraft, but aircraft apparently liber
by ipeev 7mo ago
I misread “uncrewed” as “unscrewed” and for a moment this became a much stranger, better aerospace story. Not autonomous aircraft, but aircraft apparently liberated from screws. A future of pilotless aircraft is plausible enough; a future of screwless aircraft is much weirder.
- Gravityloss 7mo agoNot as weird as one might think, fasteners produce local loads and require holes, so designing without them would be much better. It has been a goal for decades but progress is slow! Maybe uncrewed vehicles can be iterated on more rapidly.
- alephnerd 7mo ago> a future of screwless aircraft is much weirder This is actually an important part of what makes a stealth airframe "stealthy", along with other stuff.
- dotancohen 7mo agoMuch of the aircraft is rivets, not screws. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/6312/why-are-airplanes-riveted-and-not-screwed https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/6312/why-are-ai... "Airplanes are riveted, not screwed because they are the product of engineers, not lawyers."