Interesting article on jet engines

[thewood1]

Came across this article when researching info on engine rebuild cycles. Its eventual focus on machine tools highlights what we, as amateurs, would consider a VERY mundane topic. I used to have a very large and sophisticated machine shop report to me when I ran a plant. We had a couple very advanced diamond tool multi-axis CNC machines. We had to have both the machines and the tooling audited every year because both were export controlled (just a note: We produced our own tooling. Our product was diamond tools.). The reason we were told is that they could have been used to produce very high tolerance jet engine blades. I helped build a plant outside Shanghai in the early 90s and the local engineers REALLY wanted us to bring a couple of those machines over. Obviously we couldn't. But the Siemens salesperson was doing everything he could to break through the export controls.

I'm glad someone wrote an article that highlights something that doesn't show up during the comparisons between various aircraft.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/powering- ... genization