It’s easy to forget our history when we’re gushing about the potential of new technology
In response to a comment on my blog entry <a href=O’Reilly Radar Executive Briefing at Etech, rektide wrote:
The lockheed martin polecat always comes to mind when talking about rapid prototyping. A spy drone with an 18 month turnaround, built with 3d printers forming composite materials. Composites are often regarded as expensive material requiring extensive tooling, but if you build the correct tooling (3d printers), there can be immense benefits.
After I forwarded Rektide’s comment (which also included some fascinating background on how the boat uphostery business in his hometown has changed due to new manufacturing technologies) to the Maker back channel at O’Reilly, Dan Woods, Associate Publisher of Make wrote:
Interesting that rektide notes the Lockheed Skunk Work’s polecat as a rapid prototyping example (18 months concept to launch). A fast turn indeed, and I’m sure as rektide comments, 3d printers forming composite materials was indeed an advantage. But I can’t help but comment that, since its inception during World War II, the Skunk Works has been legendary for an almost eerily bare bones approach toward impossible engineering challenges. Small teams; a dearth of layers; shielded from the bureaucracy that is rampant in sister divisions; and guided by a few design principals drafted by Kelly Johnson himself – as I recall they were drafted on a single sheet of paper (one side).
In 1943, after the war department realized the Germans were about the take to the sky with the world’s first jet fighter (a concept U.S. generals had repeatedly rejected), they turned to Kelly Johnson (creator of the P-38 Lightning and father of the Skunk Works). They asked him if if would be possible to design and develop a jet fighter capable of 600mph in just 6 months. In one of the more astonishing aeronautical design feats of all time, Kelly’s band of just 23 design engineers and 30 shop mechanics conceived, designed, and flew P-80 Shooting Star (code named Lulu Bell) beating every design requirement in just 143 days. Rapid prototyping…with not much more than paper and slide rules.
It is indeed awesome to remember what some of the pioneers of our modern industry did with what we’d today consider to be impossibly primitive tools. They were indeed giants. We must raise our sights if we want to match up to them!
Kelly Johnson’s skunkworks rules are also reminiscent of some of what has been learned by Web 2.0 startups. Compare Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza teams” at Amazon with Kelly’s rule that “The number of people having any connection with the project must be restricted in an almost vicious manner. Use a small number of good people (10% to 25% compared to the so-called normal systems).”
I also love Kelly’s rule that “The contractor must be delegated the authority to test his final product in flight. He can and must test it in the initial stages. If he doesn’t, he rapidly loses his competency to design other vehicles.” This antedates the computer industry’s “eat your own dog food by decades, and what’s more, did so when lives were on the line. It is also reminiscent of the practice at many Web 2.0 startups of requiring product developers to be responsible for their maintenance and operations, at least in the skunkworks stage. Kelly also notes: “Push more basic inspection responsibility back to subcontractors and vendors. Don’t duplicate so much inspection.” This insight was also key to the Japanese manufacturing revolution in autos.
And while he does emphasize the importance of specifications, he also writes: “A very simple drawing and drawing release system with great flexibility for making changes must be provided.” Revision-control systems have become a sine-qua-non of modern development.