first Aerospace repository
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- I am a pensioned aerospace engineer, who has written his first codes (BESOA/Fortran/Algol) in 1963 still using punched cards and a Siemens 2002 computer. The codes were used for helicopter development (Bo 105).
- Then I made an engineering career at MBB ending up as senior VP engineering for the development of combat ac (till 1980). In this time digital computers matured, we used for example Nastran on IBM machines and introduced computer aided design (Lockheed and Dassault/Cadam/Catia).I was not anymore actively involved in coding, but was responsible for many strategic decisions on the use of IT in engineering. My further steps have been Senior VP helicopter and transport systems development, president of the space division, COO of Airbus Industrie and finally member of the board of DLR. In all functions I was confronted with the increasing capabilities/complexities of the digital computers and the web.
- In 2002 I retired and begun again coding, playing around only on my PC. I thought myself VB/VBA, Scratch, Java, and HTML/CSS. Now nearly 79 years old, I found my great love - I discovered Python! Belonging to the dinosaurs of aerospace and IT I was lucky enough to experience the progress. From year to year it seemed not to be much, but over more than 50 years it was a revolution. The Siemens 2002 in 1963 needed a big room for the hardware and software engineering was not existing. We shared these facilities with many persons and one had to plan and reserve computer time weeks before. My little PC today, combined with Python, is beating my companies Siemens 2002 with BESOA software light-years. Never the less, we developed outstanding products, such as Bo 105, BK117(first version of H 145/UH 72),Bo 108(forerunner of H 135), Tiger, NH 90, ALH, Tornado, Eurofighter and the family of Airbus airliners(A300/310, A318/319/320/321, A 330-300/-200, A 340, A400M and A 380). You would not believe what I could do with my slide rule! I ask myself whether today we overkill the problems - only because the overkill is possible. Development cycles are not shorter and products are not light-years better or more economic! Software engineering is a mess.
- In summary I believe training coding early at school and later using open source approaches are the only promising way towards the future!
Volker von Tein 19.10.2017
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