[USMA:11837] Re: [ukma] Fw: Italy-news March 24-01

[kilopascal]

2001-03-25   If I were to venture a guess, it would have to do with getting a late start after WWII.  By the time Airbus started producing planes, Boeing and MD had already "perfected" the craft.  Everything from design to fasteners had already been tested and proven.  To change anything would mean extensive testing and delays in production.  It was more important to get a plane off the ground then to start over again with SI.   I can't actually say if Airbus uses inches, or just inch fasteners.  They may have all their drawings in millimetres, with the millimetres being soft conversions of inch designs.  Since machine parts don't always fall into the rational number category in either SI or inch units, it probably doesn't matter if a design is soft converted.    It would make more sense if the drawings are in millimetres as this would allow technicians and assemblers to use the common metric tools available in the EU market as well the feel of the EU personnel for SI and the lack of knowledge of inches.   I guess only someone who works for Airbus or knows their operations can make this clear to us.       John   Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrt�mlich glaubt frei zu sein.   There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they re free!   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: Sunday, 2001-03-25 22:34 Subject: [USMA:11834] Re: [ukma] Fw: Italy-news March 24-01 In a message dated 2001-03-25 11:00:42 Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: As far as I know, Aeroplanes made by Boeing, Macdonald-Douglas (sp?) and Airbus use inch based fasteners.  All other smaller companies, outside the US that make computer planes use metric. We know about Boeing - they are intransigent about this.  Boeing recently bought McDonnell-Douglas and phased out their production of MD-11's (formerly DC-10), converting the MD80 (formerly DC-9) into the Boeing 717.  But Airbus?  Why in God's name is Airbus Industrie, a European concern, building in wombat?? Carleton