The Heavy Press Program | FerrariChat

The Heavy Press Program

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by JCR, Feb 28, 2020.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. JCR

    JCR F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Mar 14, 2005
    9,991
    H-Town, Tejas
    This is the story of America's massive forging presses built during the cold war used to build America's most advanced machinery - the Heavy Press Program. Modern airplanes, missiles, helicopters, turbines - all have parts made on these giant machines!

     
    Ney, thecarreaper, Boomhauer and 2 others like this.
  2. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 29, 2004
    33,736
    Austin TX
    Full Name:
    Brian Crall
    Thanks. It is an amazing manufacturing technology.
     
  3. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    7,911
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    When American technologists examined the first FW190 they were shocked to see that the front spar was one continuous aluminum forging from outboard of one landing gear to the opposite side of the other. They had no idea of the massive 55,000 ton press that the German's had during the war.
     
  4. Texas Forever

    Texas Forever Seven Time F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Apr 28, 2003
    75,391
    Texas!
    Once upon a time, we were great.


    Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
     
    Boomhauer likes this.
  5. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 29, 2004
    33,736
    Austin TX
    Full Name:
    Brian Crall
    We did need to get rid of all of those nasty manufacturers and nasty dirty factories and replace them with strip malls and Starbucks. They sully the environment and they just aren't pretty. Besides who wants their kid to be a factory worker when they can be a barista?


    "Merica....we make the second best cup of coffee in the world".
     
  6. NYC Fred

    NYC Fred F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Sep 28, 2010
    9,474
    Fort Lauderdale, FL
    Full Name:
    Fred C
    Fascinating stuff for a machinery junkie like me...

    TY for posting. What's the original site? I'd like to send to a couple of friends...
     
  7. JCR

    JCR F1 Veteran
    Silver Subscribed

    Mar 14, 2005
    9,991
    H-Town, Tejas
  8. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    7,911
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    Way back in 1952 when I was working on the B-52 I prepared an illustration of the landing gear bulkhead that was a massive assembly of several aluminum forgings manufactured by Wyman-Gordon. The B-52 is full of large forgings and I have never heard of a failure. The 707 has a few also but the most complicated is the rear spar terminal fitting that joins the wing spar to the center section rear spar and the buttock line 70.5 rib. I also did the illustration of that part and had to deal with sweepback angle, dihedral angle, body station planes, and buttock lines. It took a long time and I worked with the engineer that designed it and he sweat blood to make certain that it wouldn't fail in any condition. He mentioned that it was the structural heart of the airplane since it took the concentration of flight loads, landing loads, turning loads, and braking loads. It was a massive and complex part after it was forged and machined and never had any problems. The strut mounting fittings on the wing were beautifully done and a bit difficult to lay out, also. Oh well. Old stuff.
     
    tritone, Tcar and Texas Forever like this.
  9. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 29, 2004
    33,736
    Austin TX
    Full Name:
    Brian Crall

    Who needs to build quality stuff like that anymore when we can just design cheap throw away consumer electronics, build it with Chinese labor and sell it for 22 times what it cost to get on the shelf? Our quarterly reports look much better that way.

    Bob, you silly old fool....get with the program!

    American made products that last long enough to get handed down to your grandkids are so passe.
     
  10. spicedriver

    spicedriver F1 Rookie

    Feb 1, 2011
    3,859
    "America's Iron Giants That Were Sold To China".
     
  11. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    7,911
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    Well, the 727 had mucho forgings in it, too. All of the rudder hinge ribs were precision forgings that saved a ton of money by eliminating all the small pieces and riveting operations. Only one faying surface where they attached to the rear spar required a small bit of machining. They were light and very strong. The crowning achievement, however, was the fin front spar forging that went from the middle of the fuselage torque bulkhead and 3/4 of the way up the fin. It looked like a huge canoe paddle with a big hole in the blade where the number two engine intake duct passed through. Just one of the huge leaps in manufacturing and structural design that graced that airplane. Engineering was extremely concerned about containing the flight loads and aerodynamics , like flutter, of all that weight at the top of the fin. No problem. Some of the motion pictures of the flutter tests are scary to watch when the wing had a flutter mode frequency that was at a different frequency than the fin and horizontal tail. Great stuff back then....none from China.
     
    Texas Forever likes this.
  12. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 29, 2004
    33,736
    Austin TX
    Full Name:
    Brian Crall
    A list of great stuff from China:


























































    .
     
    Bob Parks likes this.
  13. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
    Consultant

    Nov 29, 2003
    7,911
    Shoreline,Washington
    Full Name:
    Robert Parks
    In the 70's and 80's the Japanese and Chinese were with Boeing on some kind of exchange program, like you build and buy from us and we will "train" some of you in our techniques. They were caught printing vast copies of our design procedures at night as well as what we were giving them during the day under the "agreement". That came out unexplainably in an all teams meeting to cut costs when a woman asked the VP of engineering if it should effect the "foreigners" who were working all night copying things. His color and demeanor changed to bright red and told the lady that he wanted to see her after the meeting. He made some changes but it was a bit late. I can't remember all the details but in the 90's we did the same thing with Japanese who had many engineers working on the advanced aircraft that we were working on. We're paying the price.
     
  14. Rifledriver

    Rifledriver Three Time F1 World Champ

    Apr 29, 2004
    33,736
    Austin TX
    Full Name:
    Brian Crall
    Well at least the Japanese would make use of it by making a quality product.
     
    Jacob Potts likes this.

Share This Page