What auto can learn from aero: simulating without prototypes

Automotive Design & Production, Oct, 2003 by Lawrence Gould

AIRPLANES AND AUTOMOBILES

"A number of differences exist in the nature of cars and airplanes," concludes Smith. Physical size is one. The shape of the product and its function is another. The operating environment is third. Think about this: if your car's engine stops while you're driving, you can pull over to the side of the road and call for help. "That doesn't really work in an airplane," says Smith. "Airplane products are designed and built to pretty incredible standards--standards that would not be cost effective in the auto industry."

Agreeing with Smith is Kevin Mixer, research director for automotive and heavy equipment industries at AMR Research (Boston, MA). Mixer points out three other differences between the two industries. First, a plane is not mass produced like an automobile, so a different set of manufacturing constraints apply, as well as simulating those constraints. For instance, aircraft rework tends to occur at the end of production, not in the midst of it.

Second, the automotive engineering/design culture is different than that in the aircraft industry. Take the reuse of parts and interchangeable parts, for example. That, continues Mixer, has been "a challenge for a number of vehicle manufacturers to drive through engineering because people like to design things new."

Last, Mixer points out, while some of the automotive companies are trying to move closer to the Boeing aircraft-design/ simulation model, they can never get to that point strictly speaking. Airplanes, Mixer says, "are much more tool, more utilitarian, than cars." Cars have those elusive qualities of fashion and image. "You can't necessarily simulate how people are going to react."