[USMA:24840] RE: New space Shuttle

[Michael Payne]

Where on earth do you get the idea Airbus uses FFU? From my experience dealing with French aircraft manufacturers, they are 100% metric, but all manuals include FFU as well as the metric. The engines however are made in the US and are normally all FFU. The same would go for ArianeSpace except the engines are made in Europe also. I subscribe to Flight International printed in Britain, which is predominantly metric with some FFU in brackets when they convert from some US source, otherwise it's all metric. An interesting aside, I was talking to our aircraft maintenance technician who told me a cut in an aircraft tire was OK as the depth did not exceed 160 Thou! I asked what is that to someone who did not deal in Thou (Thousands of an inch), turns out it was 4 mm, he seemed impressed that this was something he understood much better than the 160 Thou. When measuring the brake pad remaining on each brake, he used millimeters only with no inch conversion. The Wheel ! assembly (gear) is made my Messier Dowty and the Tires by Michelin.   Mike Payne ----- Original Message ----- From: kilopascal To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 09/2/03 21:43:59 Subject: [USMA:24795] New space Shuttle 2003-02-09   Today's Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on a new concept design for a future space shuttle.  The article was written by David Wood of Newhouse News Service.   I don't hear much about Ariennespace these days.  I'm wondering what they are doing.  Do they produce their parts and rockets in metric or are they like the Airbus and use FFU?  What does anyone know about the Chinese efforts in space?  Do we know for sure if they use metric in their designs?  If they surpass NASA in space, can we be guaranteed that they will be a powerful force in metricating space and help reverse the US's FFU-ing of space?  Will the future space shuttles be designed and built in metric?   The article had a "picture" of a concept shuttle, with Boeing's name all over it.  If Boeing designs a future replacement shuttle, can we count on it being metric?  Can we really trust NASA to follow their own rules and design all future projects in metric?    John         --- Michael Payne --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.