jack.39
Member
I corresponded with a gentleman in the early 2000's who had built a magnificent live steam locomotive. He was well-known to that particular hobby culture, but revealed to me he had gotten his most useful and valuable experience while working for one of the major aircraft manufacturers in Southern California. His name was Doug Alkire (I. Douglas Alkire), in case someone might remember him.
As best as I can remember, he "shaped" contours for fuselage and wing structures, and developed a method which made such work far easier than the traditional means used by the builders up to that time. He used a word to describe that type of work, a common descriptive word that when heard, had no connotation to airplanes, but for the life of me, I cannot recall it.
He- (generated, populated, surfaced, extracted, developed, etc, ALL WRONG TERMS) the surfaces. I lost that communication with him, sad to say. Can anyone come up with the word he used to describe his work? It must be a common aircraft-builders' term, I think.
Thanks for reading! jack
As best as I can remember, he "shaped" contours for fuselage and wing structures, and developed a method which made such work far easier than the traditional means used by the builders up to that time. He used a word to describe that type of work, a common descriptive word that when heard, had no connotation to airplanes, but for the life of me, I cannot recall it.
He- (generated, populated, surfaced, extracted, developed, etc, ALL WRONG TERMS) the surfaces. I lost that communication with him, sad to say. Can anyone come up with the word he used to describe his work? It must be a common aircraft-builders' term, I think.
Thanks for reading! jack
