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Comment by mikece | Hacker News Reader

Some of the most successful programs are designed either by one person or a small group of designers who were given the autonomy to do their job. This story reminds me of the origin story of the American GPS system which was designed over a holiday weekend by three engineers. If you want projects to work then give a small, qualified group the room to make decisions and turn them loose. If you want to give the appearance of doing something for years on end then assemble endless committees and design reviews (like the F-35, Ford Class carrier, DDX-21, etc).

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More like the initial design concept was defined over a weekend. The actual detailed design, even for highly successful programs like the F-117, took much longer. Nobody ever designed an aircraft for serial production over a weekend, not even back when planes were build out of canvas and wood.

EDIT: After reading the article, what Boeing did back then was the same thing as Boom coming up with a rendering and a high level design concept over the weekend. Also, back then times, and technology, were different.

I think the point being made is that many projects start as an idea that is then brought into the prototype phase, iterated upon, and then is complete whenever the project delivers a significant increase in current capabilities compared to the current systems.

This in contrast to the F-35 project which apparently decided all the capabilities up front and then has went about designing an aircraft to somehow reach all those goals. Whether or not it will is a subject of ongoing debate. It also somehow has wound up making 3 different airframes.

A good example of this would be Soviet copies of the B-29 & the V-2. In both cases there was pressure to "build our own that is better". Apparently Stalin got involved in both cases and demanded that a way be found to produce a domestic copy first, then learn from that, & produce a domestic design next. Not sure how accurate that is, but it seems to have worked out. Soviet long range bombers & Soviet missile systems are certainly nothing to scoff at.

Reducing the number of engineers wouldn't have made the JSF, CVN-21, or DD-21 programs more successful. The designs largely met the customer requirements, and any technical failings were within normal expectations for innovative programs. The problems were more due to flawed customer requirements, funding limitations, and political decisions to move prematurely into production without adequate testing. For example, the DD-21 was primarily intended to provide naval gunfire support for amphibious assaults but it turns out that's no longer really needed at all.

Alledgedly a Bugatti W12 and W18 engine was sketched during a train ride on the Shinkansen on an envelope.

https://de.hoffmann-speedster.com/media/image/e0/14/3f/Ferdi...

A linear superposition of two or three V6 engines!

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