The BBC reports of the first plane every made using only a computer without the use of prototypes or wind tunnels:
By doing away entirely with physical prototypes, a French airplane manufacturer has found that virtual reality can deliver very real savings, reports David Reid.
Planes are complicated things to make, and the journey from drawing board to jet stream can be a long haul.
Among the most time consuming and expensive stops on the way are the various mock ups and prototype stages, which stand between aircraft idea and actuality.
The French company Dassault, which makes those business jets of which many of us dream but few get to run their fingers through the shag-pile of, has worked out a way to sidestep the more exacting demands of the physical world.
Their latest offering, the Falcon 7X, is the first aircraft to be designed entirely in virtual reality.
Its engineer Jerome Camps says: “From the early stages we have been in a position to understand not only the way that we would design the airplane, but also understand how we would assemble it, manufacture it, maintain it, how we would support the aircraft in service.
“All this being anticipated electronically, from design using those revolutionary tools.”
This is SO cool. What just 10 years ago would have been considerd a pipe dream is now reality. The question is if society is able to handle stuff made solely with computers. I mean, what happens if one of the programmers of the wind tunnel simulation had a bad day and made a vague mistake nobody catches? The results could be disasterous….
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