We reach today number five on our list of unusual aircrafts with the Caproni Stipa. Developed by Luigi Stipa and manufactured by the Italian aeronautic company Caproni this experimental aircraft with its ducted propeller (distant precursor of the turbofan), flew for the first time in October of 1932. Despite its ridiculous appearance (it was called ‘the flying barrel’) it performed well, but due to the big aerodynamic drag its maximum speed did not exceed 131 km/h. However its landing speed was extremely low (70 km/h) requiring a very short runway for landing.
It had a wingspan of 14.3 meters and an overall length of 5.5 m. This double seat aircraft had a takeoff weight of 800 kg and was powered by a De Havilland Gipsy III 120 HP engine.
Only one prototype was built and the project was abandoned due to its limited performances.
Although the prototype does not remain, in 1988 a 3:5 scale replica was built in Australia (built like this so that it could be included in the ultralight category) and flew in 2001, again confirming the excellent maneuverability characteristics pointed out by the Italian test pilots 69 years ago. Currently this aircraft is in an Australian museum.
This is a YouTube video where you can watch one of the flights of the Stipa.
In one of our previous posts we spoke about the specialists. I will dedicate an upcoming chapter to them where I will tell you how they face their daily and special task, but today they will help us to introduce you all a very special figure. The Guardian.
For those of you who have decided that the management is not for you and that you want to dedicate your professional career to the technical issues, my condolences and congratulations. My condolences because you have chosen a hard and non-glamorous way, which will be very hard to leave. My congratulations because you show that there is still hope and, maybe in the future, the efforts of people like you will achieve the recognition it deserves. This may not occur in your generation (for sure it will not happen in mine) but at least I would like to believe that the seed is not completely dried out.
Within the technical side, the road is quite short and it has only three categories: the Specialist, the Expert and the Guardian. Those of you who follow this technical path, will only reach the Expert level (which, as I said before, is just a specialist with gray hair) because the Guardian category is reserved for a new species appeared in the last years in the lee of the development of standards that tell you how to do things.
The Guardian category is not reached after years of learning trying to be the best in your specialty area. On the contrary, this category is full of quite young people with little or no field experience, who have decided, probably as a result of a mystical revelation, become the Guardians of the Word and Defenders of the Book.
The guardian is the closest thing to a guru, but without the robe (beard is optional) and like him, his knowledge comes from meditation. He is dedicates his life to contemplation and the knowledge of the Book and, obviously, to spread the Word.
Unlike what happens in monotheistic religions, in this case the Book is not the only one, there are several kinds of them and each has its associated Guardians. These Books, in the form of Guidelines, have an immense collection of definitions and recommendations on how you should do your designs, to conform to what the Word says. Each technical branch has its own, but they all seem the same. I will not dare to point out any of these guidelines’, but I’m sure each of you can find good examples in your specific area.
Until recently all the guidelines that applied to the industry, regardless of which sector it was, came to be booklets for engineers where the most important thing were the numbers. How to weight, how to measure, how to calculate… They were full of graphics, tables and formulae where you enjoyed as a pig in a puddle. These guidelines did not need interpretation, only knowledge.
Unfortunately for us this new style of Guidelines are not like the old ones. Its goal is not to ensure the product quality you are designing, but the quality of the documents you generate. To make things even more complicated, they are no longer Application Manuals, but something more like a Penal Code. They are confusing, profuse and diffuse and this favors the arising of the figure of the Guardian that, like a judge or an attorney, will teach the rest of the humanity the meaning and the necessary explanations.
The Guardian is a person who has specialized in studying and analyzing the Book (in the same way as the augurs looked the innards of birds or the tea leaves for thousands of years) to warn you of the dangers you will face during the development of the equipment that you are working on.
It is quite curious that if you look up any of these guidelines in the internet you won’t find any link where you can download them, but instead you will find hundreds of corporate sites that offer you help in their correct interpretation, and this can not be good.
Returning to the figure of the Guardian, you might expect it to be someone with extensive professional experience. Someone who answers questions imparting deep knowledge. But unfortunately these individuals, generally speaking, only teach the purest Taliban style. For them everything is complex and dangerous and they see in the most insignificant things a possible path toward sin. In fact, with their admonitions, all they get is that you want to run and submit your resignation.
Despite all this, this kind of guru is feared, because a single comment could ruin the work of several months. No reply is admitted nor discussion with you about possible options to his objections. He is the Guardian of the Word and there is nothing to discuss.
This reminds me of those apocalyptic movies like Mad Max, where after the collapse of civilization, centuries later the survivors have their own priests who use a copy of an old Newsweek or National Geographic as a sacred text. Naturally, that poor people are unable to put into context all that written words and what they really meant and as they do their own interpretation everything becomes an indecipherable gobbledygook. By the way, I encourage you to watch “Cloud Atlas” as an example of what I’m talking about.
Coming back to the present, I believe that we have started a road to nowhere. We still do not have enough perspective to see the results of these new design approaches, but I am afraid they will set us back 10 years, because as the cost of a new development according to all these rules is so high, a company will think twice before launching a new project, or may be they start the project, but then the selling price will be multiplied by ten.
This could be the real reason behind it…
A thought
If somebody fools you, it is his fault. If you are fooled twice, the fault is yours.
See you.
Be brave!
We will return in January. Meanwhile Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Visit www.dip-solutions.com if you want to see what we do.
It had a wingspan of 14.3 meters and an overall length of 5.5 m. This double seat aircraft had a takeoff weight of 800 kg and was powered by a De Havilland Gipsy III 120 HP engine.
Only one prototype was built and the project was abandoned due to its limited performances.
Although the prototype does not remain, in 1988 a 3:5 scale replica was built in Australia (built like this so that it could be included in the ultralight category) and flew in 2001, again confirming the excellent maneuverability characteristics pointed out by the Italian test pilots 69 years ago. Currently this aircraft is in an Australian museum.
This is a YouTube video where you can watch one of the flights of the Stipa.
In one of our previous posts we spoke about the specialists. I will dedicate an upcoming chapter to them where I will tell you how they face their daily and special task, but today they will help us to introduce you all a very special figure. The Guardian.
For those of you who have decided that the management is not for you and that you want to dedicate your professional career to the technical issues, my condolences and congratulations. My condolences because you have chosen a hard and non-glamorous way, which will be very hard to leave. My congratulations because you show that there is still hope and, maybe in the future, the efforts of people like you will achieve the recognition it deserves. This may not occur in your generation (for sure it will not happen in mine) but at least I would like to believe that the seed is not completely dried out.
Within the technical side, the road is quite short and it has only three categories: the Specialist, the Expert and the Guardian. Those of you who follow this technical path, will only reach the Expert level (which, as I said before, is just a specialist with gray hair) because the Guardian category is reserved for a new species appeared in the last years in the lee of the development of standards that tell you how to do things.
The Guardian category is not reached after years of learning trying to be the best in your specialty area. On the contrary, this category is full of quite young people with little or no field experience, who have decided, probably as a result of a mystical revelation, become the Guardians of the Word and Defenders of the Book.
The guardian is the closest thing to a guru, but without the robe (beard is optional) and like him, his knowledge comes from meditation. He is dedicates his life to contemplation and the knowledge of the Book and, obviously, to spread the Word.
Unlike what happens in monotheistic religions, in this case the Book is not the only one, there are several kinds of them and each has its associated Guardians. These Books, in the form of Guidelines, have an immense collection of definitions and recommendations on how you should do your designs, to conform to what the Word says. Each technical branch has its own, but they all seem the same. I will not dare to point out any of these guidelines’, but I’m sure each of you can find good examples in your specific area.
Until recently all the guidelines that applied to the industry, regardless of which sector it was, came to be booklets for engineers where the most important thing were the numbers. How to weight, how to measure, how to calculate… They were full of graphics, tables and formulae where you enjoyed as a pig in a puddle. These guidelines did not need interpretation, only knowledge.
Unfortunately for us this new style of Guidelines are not like the old ones. Its goal is not to ensure the product quality you are designing, but the quality of the documents you generate. To make things even more complicated, they are no longer Application Manuals, but something more like a Penal Code. They are confusing, profuse and diffuse and this favors the arising of the figure of the Guardian that, like a judge or an attorney, will teach the rest of the humanity the meaning and the necessary explanations.
The Guardian is a person who has specialized in studying and analyzing the Book (in the same way as the augurs looked the innards of birds or the tea leaves for thousands of years) to warn you of the dangers you will face during the development of the equipment that you are working on.
It is quite curious that if you look up any of these guidelines in the internet you won’t find any link where you can download them, but instead you will find hundreds of corporate sites that offer you help in their correct interpretation, and this can not be good.
Returning to the figure of the Guardian, you might expect it to be someone with extensive professional experience. Someone who answers questions imparting deep knowledge. But unfortunately these individuals, generally speaking, only teach the purest Taliban style. For them everything is complex and dangerous and they see in the most insignificant things a possible path toward sin. In fact, with their admonitions, all they get is that you want to run and submit your resignation.
Despite all this, this kind of guru is feared, because a single comment could ruin the work of several months. No reply is admitted nor discussion with you about possible options to his objections. He is the Guardian of the Word and there is nothing to discuss.
This reminds me of those apocalyptic movies like Mad Max, where after the collapse of civilization, centuries later the survivors have their own priests who use a copy of an old Newsweek or National Geographic as a sacred text. Naturally, that poor people are unable to put into context all that written words and what they really meant and as they do their own interpretation everything becomes an indecipherable gobbledygook. By the way, I encourage you to watch “Cloud Atlas” as an example of what I’m talking about.
Coming back to the present, I believe that we have started a road to nowhere. We still do not have enough perspective to see the results of these new design approaches, but I am afraid they will set us back 10 years, because as the cost of a new development according to all these rules is so high, a company will think twice before launching a new project, or may be they start the project, but then the selling price will be multiplied by ten.
This could be the real reason behind it…
A thought
If somebody fools you, it is his fault. If you are fooled twice, the fault is yours.
See you.
Be brave!
We will return in January. Meanwhile Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Visit www.dip-solutions.com if you want to see what we do.
No comments:
Post a Comment