Effects of Standardization.
Incidentally, one may point out the detrimental effects of undue standardization as applied to an industry in its preliminary stages. These effects are well exemplified by certain machines, in which standardization has been studied to an almost meticulous extent, with the logical result that their performance is considerably inferior to that of other machines of contemporary design, but in which desirable improvements are incorporated as they occur. Although at present one cannot give actual figures, the average performance of modern British aircraft in range of speeds, rate and extent of climb is superior to the products of any other country, and one certainly cannot cite the construction of the average British machine as an example of standardization. Seeing that, as a typical instance, wing sections are frequently altered in minor detail, the impracticability of standardization is apparent, for this would entail, to a firm wishing to keep pace with developments, a considerable loss, through scrapping of jigs, etc., consequent upon the new design. When the principles of aeroplane design are as well defined as those pertaining to internal combustion engines, one may expect the various manufacturers to produce one type of machine per year, and the various improvements adduced from the year’s experience would be incorporated in the type of the succeeding year.
Fig. 26.—Plan view of wing assembly.
However, leaving the realms of vaticination for the more prosaic subject of wing construction, it will be realized that the process of producing the full-sized wing, accurately conforming to the measurements, etc., deduced from experiment, and so constructed that the chief characteristic of the section will permanently remain, is of importance. As one or two of the spar sections in use were dealt with in the first chapter, it will be unnecessary again to consider them in detail.
[Fig. 26] shows diagrammatically the plan view of a wing assembly typical of modern practice, so far as the disposition of the various components is concerned.