Well reality is that we are not there yet and as Stan Jakuba once said in a training I took from him, that we, as engineers will all need to speak two languages for years to come, both English and metric.
I watched the docking and it does hurt to hear "the shuttle is now only 5 feet from the International Space Station". On a lighter note, today's Rubes cartoon refers centimeters, although I forget the exact reference at this point. Howard Ressel Project Design Engineer, Region 4 (585) 272-3372 >>> "Michael Payne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 3/12/2008 4:04 PM >>> I liked this one from Jim's post at http://tinyurl.com/yvwv9f Just yesterday the ISS crew called down and said we have the metric torque wrench and the procedure says the value in ft-lbs. Could someone do the conversion for them? The flight director responded "I can't believe we are having this conversation in the 21st century. yeah, right. ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Frysinger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 12 March 2008 18:56 Subject: [USMA:40541] Airplane units of measurement > Probably for proprietary reasons, it is difficult to quickly determine > what units of measurement airplanes are designed in. I did find some > interesting links, though. > > This interesting page provides cargo specifications for several aircraft > in both "U.S. Standards" and "Metric Standars". Of course, that says > nothing about the units the aircraft were designed in. > http://www.nwa.com/services/shipping/cargo/aircraft.html > > Airbus provides a page of gross specifications on their A330/A340 family > in both "metric" and "imperial" units. > http://www.airbus.com/en/aircraftfamilies/a330a340/a330-200/specifications.html > > A discussion thread I found is interesting. One poster claims (2/15/08 > 4:07 PM) that Boeing went metric starting with its 767 series. Another > poster asserts (2/15/08 05:38 PM) that Airbus planes have a switch to > select metric or non-metric readouts on its flight panels. > http://uplink.space.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=missions&Number=883054&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&fpart= > > Jim > > -- > James R. Frysinger > 632 Stony Point Mountain Road > Doyle, TN 38559-3030 > > (H) 931.657.3107 > (C) 931.212.0267 >
