Primarily for general aviation discussion, but other aviation topics are also welcome.
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By akg1486
#1841406
Interesting job many of these engineers have: they work for years and years, then the result is packed up in a little box and hurled through space (including a few spincter-clenching moments of fear that it will simply burn up) and a while after the arrival they finally, finally get to see if it worked or if it was all for nothing. It's quite a lot more excitement than I have in my day job! :D

Good luck and well done to them! :thumleft:
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1841413
Dave W wrote:Just goes to show that once again: ROTORHEADS RULE. :D

Or alternately, helicopters are so ugly that other planets repel them, not just the Earth.

Seriously, I was just reading about the woman whose team did it - impressive aviation professional by any standard: Dr Mimi Aung.. She looks happy about it.

Image

G
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By Morten
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1841420
akg1486 wrote:Interesting job many of these engineers have: they work for years and years, then the result is packed up in a little box and hurled through space (including a few spincter-clenching moments of fear that it will simply burn up) and a while after the arrival they finally, finally get to see if it worked or if it was all for nothing. It's quite a lot more excitement than I have in my day job! :D
Good luck and well done to them! :thumleft:


Indeed. The reaction in the Matra Marconi Space restaurant in Toulouse when the Ariane 5 maiden flight failed was a rather stunned 15 minute silence with some highly emotional 'breathing' at several tables. Colleagues who had worked on the 4 Cluster satellites at Dornier in Friedrichshafen had the same experience there. I knew no-one at Aerospatiale in Les Mureaux but it was surely the same.
Rather sadly, many of the institutional projects span so many years that it is not often the people originally involved with the conceptual design or even the detailed design at CDR level, are anywhere near the project when it finally launches or as in this case, flies. I had colleagues on Cassini Huygens who retired before Huygens touched down... One of the 3 satellites I worked on in the 90s is still mothballed in a cleanroom whilst the 2 other Flight Models are performing flawlessly (way past their 5 year design life) - an ex-colleague has worked 25 years on the same project...

Back to this achievement - hat off to the JPL team who over the decades have pulled off some fabulous engineering :salut: :D :thumleft:
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1841425
Genghis the Engineer wrote:Seriously, I was just reading about the woman whose team did it - impressive aviation professional by any standard: Dr Mimi Aung.. She looks happy about it.

Image


Gleefully happy engineers make me smile a lot. Apparntly that’s the “plan for if it all goes horribly wrong” she’s merrily shredded there :D
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1841489
"Nasa has announced that the "airstrip" in Jezero where Perseverance dropped off Ingenuity for its demonstration will henceforth be known as the "Wright Brothers Field".

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) - the United Nations' civil aviation agency - has also presented the Nasa and the US Federal Aviation Administration with an official ICAO designator: IGY, call-sign INGENUITY."


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56799755
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