Blimps

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Thu Dec 17 00:45:58 1998

On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:

> silly parade on TV. In fact, I took my first programming course to
> learn to work out engineering questions on the rigid airship designs
> that I'm still playing with, it was pure coincidence that it was a
> prerequisite or concurrent requirement for the calculus sequence I
> also started that quarter (I was a mathematics major, after all).

Interesting. My first paying programming contract was to do hot-air
balloon structural analysis on an Apple ][. A balloon maker in Rancho
Sante Fe (just north of San Diego) had to get FAA certification for new
designs, so they paid some college kid to write a program that proved
their designs were safe (luckily, I was studying continuum mechanics at
the time).

I was able to generate some pretty pictures and some numbers that looked
right to me, and the FAA bought it, but there was no way I was going up in
one of those things!

-- Doug
Received on Thu Dec 17 1998 - 00:45:58 GMT