After the Christmas holidays and starting with the New Year, we reach to number four of the weirdest aircrafts in history. And the one we have choosen for today is really a weirdo. It is the Vought V173 “Flying Pancake” designed by Charles H. Zimmerman, a notorious aeronautic engineer who worked on the concept of the disk shaped aircraft. This kind of configuration tried to avoid the adverse effects of the induced drag caused by a short wing aspect ratio with vortexes generated by the long propellers located in the tips. The original prototype was built of wood and fabric and was powered by two 80 HP engines spinning propellers that were taken from a F4U Corsair! Although later these were changed for others with a special design. In order to clear the ground on land, the aircraft had a standing angle distance of 22 degrees, what gave this aircraft almost VTOL capabilities.
The first flight of the V-173 was on 23 November of 1942 and had vibration problems due to the complex gearboxes that drove the propellers. During 1942 and 1943 190 the test flights that were performed showed the plane’s easy maneuverability and low speed qualities (even Charles Lindbergh flew it and assured this).
Unfortunately, like many other projects of this time, it was surpassed by the modern jet fighters. The last flight was in 1947.
A V-173 is still preserved in the Smithsonian.
This is a link to a Youtube video where different test phases are shown.
When we talked in previous posts about the specialists, I don’t think that any of you thought about the importance that these people have in the daily workout of a company. These men and women are a collective of which the direction board is very proud of, but they do not pay any attention to them. Although no one explicitly say it, the underlying message is that “these people have so much fun with what they do that they are sufficiently rewarded”.
And probably this is the quid of all; because it assumes that when a person does not like his work you should pay him more in order to keep him motivated. However if this same person enjoys his work, this motivational extra is his own satisfaction when he goes home.
This is not my imagination. I know perfectly what I am talking about, the director of a company in which I worked many years ago, once told me jokingly: “you should pay for working here, as you are enjoying your work so much”. If you take away the cordial tone, this sentence reflects exactly what he really thought.
But you should not feel bad about this, but accept it, not as a normal thing, but at least, as an unusual thing. But beware, this does not mean by far that you should not demand a fairer deal. But this will not be achieved individually, but building and maintaining a group spirit that highlights the value of the activity that you develop as specialists.
Before we continue, I want to assure you that this has nothing to do with union claims or anything similar. Unions may have had their importance at some point in history, but nowadays they are a refuge for lazy bones and malefactors with which it is better not to relate. No, my proposal is different; I’m talking about the group proudness, about the mutual recognition, about the capacity of helping each other in a supportive way. I am talking about something that is closer to the Freemasonry than to the Class Union (an expression that I do not understand at all).
As technicians you should look after those that are kindred to you and create strong bonds that enable you to value your work. And primarily this should serve to avoid that the bad managers (there are also good managers, even if it is hard to believe) turn, with their incompetence, your whole work into crap.
Some years ago I found a story in the Internet that I loved and I will tell you now.
A Man in a Balloon
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a man below. He descended a bit more and shouted,
"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."
The man below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the man, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."
The man below responded, "You must be a manager."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know."
"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."
This story is as old as the world itself. It is the eternal struggle between the ones who organize and make the plans and the ones who really has to put ideas into practice. Everybody has his place and his role to play in both categories and from a professional point of view, there are good ones, bad ones and average ones.
Always remember, as Cipolla used to say, the fools like the bad guys have no flag. They do not belong exclusively to any ethnic group, country, belief or social class and therefore you will find them anywhere anytime.
The problem is not that there are fools, the problem appears when a fool comes to power and adapts the rules so that he can surround himself with more fools who support him and do not overshadow him. This phenomenon is perpetuated both in companies and in societies. It is Plato’s concept of aristocracy (government of the best) but inversed.
I am not saying that to be a good manager you have to be a Ph.D. in astrophysics and another in Quantum Physics, but it is not acceptable that usually the managers are those who are not useful anywhere else (the example of politicians is as frightening as enlightening).
And even assuming that this is not the case and that the management of a company is done by clever people with outstanding capabilities, it would still be unacceptable to those other people who decided to devote his life to solve the problems (small or big) that the technological development brings up daily, that they are systematically pushed into the background with the poor argument that I told at the beginning (“they enjoy so much their work that they do not need anything else”).
Now I pose a question. Do you know any expert, the best in his area, who has a company car or earns the same as the Division Director without being manager? If so, please let me know, because I would be honored to shake his hand and, especially, his CEO’s.
A thought:
In a certain moment you may think that things cannot get worse. Well, you are wrong.
Later you could think that there is no hope. You would be wrong again.
Life is an amazing and magic series of mistakes.
See you
Be brave
Visit www.dip-solutions.com if you want to see what we do.
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