LOOKING BACK
ASME ROLE IN
POWERED FLIGHT
From its inception, ASME considered powered flight
to be one of its interests, according to the December
1953 article from which this excerpt is taken. Here,
the author talks about a new initiative to advance
aircraft production.
BY HARRIS F. REEVE, FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION, NEW YORK
The Aviation Division, Machine Design Division, Metals Engineering Division, and Production Engineering Division of ASME have joined with the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers,
the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, and the Society of Automotive
Engineers in sponsoring discussions of the Air Force Heavy-Press
Program for light metals. The program involves the design and building
of huge presses used for forming very large integral sections of airframes such as wing and fuselage members, as well as landing-gear
components and other parts. Such structures are essential for the
high-strength and light-weight requirements of present and future
supersonic aircraft. It has been found that forgings and extrusions
are most suitable for making these parts, which must have precision
of form, great strength, light weight, as well as the lowest possible cost.
Such presses, to exert 20,000 tons of pressure, weigh 11,000,000 lb.
with their auxiliary equipment, and
stand 27 ft. high. Forging presses are
now being built in capacities of 35,000
tons and 50,000 tons. As an example
of the saving which can be expected
from the use of such heavy presses,
Douglas Aircraft Company recently
reported that whereas the inboard rib
of a swept-wing airplane used to start
with a hand-forged billet weighing
1,000 pounds that had to be machined
down to the finished piece weighing
about 200 pounds, and requiring many
man-hours of work, with the 35,000-ton
press a similar part weighing about 210
pounds can be “hammered” out by the
press in a single operation. A spar
approximately 30 feet long can be
made in a single piece. The program
will require the investment of a half-billion dollars, which can be provided
only through Government sources, and
is expected to be the largest industrial-processing program in the history of
this nation. ME
For the 50th anniversary of powered
flight in December 1953, an article
recounted ASME’s long history in
support of flight technology.
TREND-SETTING SUB
In the same month that “ASME Role in Powered
Flight” appeared, the U.S. Navy commissioned a
new kind of submarine, the USS Albacore. Its hull
was shaped like a tear drop and made of a new
high-strength steel, HY- 80. It could travel as fast as
older guppy-style subs at half the shaft horsepower.
The Albacore, now on display in Portsmouth, N.H.,
was named an ASME Historic Mechanical Engineering
Landmark in 2000.
