Page 38 - MY STORY

3. Never be concerned about the complexity of the work.

Complexity was simply a challenge to be examined and
overcome with a clear procedure and patience. Always
double or triple check every piece of data and associated

computation before interpreting the experimental data
and presenting a result or interpretation.

4. Plot or present the results and data interpretation in a
clear and non-ambiguous manner, so that a non-expert
could understand the result and conclusion drawn from

the result. The ability to write and present clearly,
succinctly, with proper grammar was integral to the

reporting.

Charlie impressed upon me the fact that we were helping
to design and build a machine that had to reliably carry

hundreds of people at near the speed of sound with a
structural life expectancy of tens of thousands of flight

hours. He made it clear that no Douglas airplane would
ever undergo a structural failure similar to the disaster
that overcame the British De Havilland Comet. There are

many approaches to minimizing fatigue damage to a
repetitively loaded structure. One of them is
shot-peening (blasting a surface with shot-size pellets) in

order to induce a compression stress on the shot peened