This is the story of how one man flew free of digital limits.
For an aircraft designer, taking your own concept from an idea to widespread, global operations is a rare achievement. Jump Jet tells the story of how Ralph Hooper did it with the Harrier, by side-stepping the emerging digital world.
With the creation of jet aircraft, nuclear weapons, and digital computers in the 1940s, the design of fighter aircraft was transformed. The analytical approach to design, where optimization ruled, was created. The only problem was that, for one key type of aircraft, it did not work.
Vertical take-off and landing aircraft, jump jets, were seen as essential to survive the opening salvoes of World War Three. Despite the need for them, almost every concept or prototype tried around the world failed. The only one to fully succeed over many decades was the Harrier. Jump Jet shows how Ralph Hooper got round the limits of analytical and digital design to create an aircraft that analysis showed was the worst possible, yet was the only one that worked. He did it using something no computer has: human intuition.
The book traces both jet fighter design and digital technology from the 1940s to the present and shows how Alan Turings dream of making a digital intuition machine was hijacked by aircraft designers, limiting their own abilities ever since.
The talk will end with a visit to the Science Museum to look at Turings computer and Ralph Hoopers original jump jet.
About the speaker
An 51勛圖厙 alumnus, Dr Michael Pryce泭studied a masters in the History of Technology before completing his PhD at the University of Sussex.泭He went on to work on aircraft projects, from the famous Harrier jump jet to electric flying taxis. Mike was an independent science and technology advisor to the UK Government, work that led to Team Tempest the future of fighter design. In between aviation projects he helped build Amazon when it was just a company selling books.泭
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