747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST INSTRUMENTATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM

747 FULL-SCALE FATIGUE TEST – Booklet

AVIATION WEEK ARTICLE ABOUT 747 FATIGUE TEST

Here i s big-picture view of the 747 Major Fatigue test. The test article is the third 747 off the assembly line at the brand new factory built in Everett, Washington.

INSERT 747 FATIGUE TEST PHOTO

PHOTOS OF 747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST JIGWORK

These pictures show the test article being enclosed in the steel jigwork used to support the airplane and apply simulated flight loads to the structure.

747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST CONTROL ROOM

Here is the inside of the test control room. The first picture shows, using a sequencing light-board, the position on the simulated three hour flight the plane would be on its simulated three-hour flight.

PHOTOS OF 747 FATIGUE TEST DIGITAL CONTROL & DATA SYSTEM

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEM

REQUIREMENTS CHANGES

As a large system is developed, it invariably requires changes. For example, the original control loop requirements for the 747 Major Fatigue Test System was was 100 channels (including one channel to control cabin air pressure and the remaining 99 for load controls). As the test design progressed, the total number of channels was actually reduced to 85. Usually requirements increase, but this one was reduced. Change control is an extremely important philosophy in the airplane business.

Here are some changes we received during design of the system to run the 747 Fatigue Test:

SCHEMATICS – 747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST INST. SYSTEM

Going through my files and papers, I found a large document of 747 Fatigue Test System schematics. The schematics are reductions of full-size drawings we produced to build the various boxes, panels and components you saw in pictures of the test control room. Here are the title pages of each of the eight system schematics.

RAMP GENERATOR: DIGITAL LOGIC CIRCUITS TO AUGMENT PDP-8 DIGITAL COMPUTER

Guy Olbrechts designed the digital ramp generators we needed to augment the processing capability of the Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-8 computer that formed the brains of the system to acquire data and control the 85 channels of load actuators and pressure control. It took three very long drawing sheets to lay out the digital ramp generator circuits. Here are those circuits. They are copied from first page on the left side to the title page on the right bottom corner.

DELIVERY AND OPERATION OF THE 747 MAJOR FATIGUE TEST INSTRUMATION SYSTEM

The system was built and assembled in Boeing’s Developmental Development Center in Seattle near Boeing Field. It was dismantled, transported to the Everett Control Room overlooking the test article that was being placed and surrounded by the steel jig work for the test. The test was being set up[ to run 24 hours per day to apply the equivalent fatigue damage to the airplane of a three hour flight every 10 minutes, or less. The test, once underway, operated at rate of one flight every 8 minutes.

Here is the Operation and Maintenance Manual my group prepared and delivered to the operations group:

DEPARTURE FROM BOEING AND SEATTLE

Boeing’s employment peaked in 1968. I I was promoted to Boeing management in February 1969 (best I could tell, I was the last engineering promoted to management before the downturn). I received my MSEE from the University of Washington on 1 March 1969. I had become accustomed to regular pay raises, rapid career advancement and success with Boeing. I had become a member of the Boeing’s ExPo Club, a group of young managers with Executive Potential selected to be groomed for future executive management positions.

I had not expected to be giving pink slips to my friends so soon after becoming a manager. The number of Boeing employees in the Seattle area exceeded 100,000 in 1968, having grown from around 30,000 in the early 1960s. I, rightly or wrongly, decided to look for greener pastures elsewhere. I decided to search for opportunities elsewhere.

As noted elsewhere on the website, in March of 1971we left Seattle headed for Chicago and a high level position in the State of Illinois Governor’s administration.

Here is a nice letter I received a year later from Leslie J. Carpenter, a close friend, engineering manager, and mentor.