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Seeing Stuff You Made On Tv


Scooter

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Was watching a Discovery Channel show, Marine Machine they were covering stuff on detection of underwater mines. I was about to flip the channel when they show a preview of what was next after the commercial and it looked like something I made at a previous job. Sure enough bits and pieces of what we built were there. At the time it was still hush hush, top secret project for the US Navy. We built a few parts that went into a sonar unit for the Navy SEALS. We built a few major components of the exterior housing, but we didn't know what the finish product looked like since it was on a need to know basis.

So it's pretty cool to finally see the finished product considering how aggravating that project was.

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For 30+ years I was employed by the largest military rotary wing aircraft repair facility in the country( in fact, in the world). We overhauled and modified rotary wing aircraft and componets for all branches of the US military and several allied countrys, (we even did engines for the M1 tanks). Every time I see a military helo I know that in some capicaty I had my hands on the sucker. I like that.------Larry

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Reminds me of a story. My buddy is also an electronics guy, and a little older. He had told me that he once worked for Honeywell.

So we had flown into a small airport and noticed a Chinook parked on the ramp with a pair of guards posted.

Hank gets excited and wants to show me something he designed inside the aircraft, and asks the guards "Hey, I used to work at Honeywell and designed the master caution annunciator panel, Okay if I go aboard and show my friend?"

The guards size us both up, decide we don't look much like terrorists: "Sure, but be quick".

We go aboard, sit in the cockpit, and Hank starts pointing out all the little caution lights on a little subpanel he designed. "See this little adapter plate? I had to use that because the supplier ..."

About the time I noticed the guards weren't paying much attention to us I also notice that Hank now has the panel REMOVED from the airframe and there's lots of wires hanging out.

"We designed these for easy maintenance - see how easy it is to change lamps- and you just press to test" Several bulbs are now out. "Whoops! hand me that lamp I dropped down there".

I finally talked him into reassembling the aircraft before the guards noticed anything, and we said thanks and quietly walked away.

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It's kinda fun knowing something you made gets used by more than 10 million people a year. It's also funny that it was an overnight rush-job that wasn't supposed to last six weeks... good thing it's only software ;):D

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If you ever find yourself sitting in a United Airlines Boeing 737 there is a very, very good chance that I've worked on that aircraft. I take pride in that and I hope you have a great trip! On the others side of that I also previously worked on United flight 93...

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Where I work there's a section of the installation that is used to test "things" that detect and deal with IEDs. For months while the site was being developed we weren't even supposed to mention it by name. Then, one Sunday morning, it's the front page story of the local newspaper. Three days later it was the lead story on NBC nightly news. Still, it's pretty dam cool to see us on the discovery channel, usually the future weapons show.

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Well… if you drop a quarter in a Pong machine, I uh…

If you are headed out to play Air Hockey, I uh…

When you see a Santa Fe locomotive, I, um, uh…

Wait, wait…if you have a S&W model 65 in your safe, there is a tiny chance that I built it.

If you played 8 ball or snooker anywhere west of the Mississippi there is a good chance that I had my hands on that table.

So much for leaving a mark on the world.

David C

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For 30+ years I was employed by the largest military rotary wing aircraft repair facility in the country( in fact, in the world). We overhauled and modified rotary wing aircraft and componets for all branches of the US military and several allied countrys, (we even did engines for the M1 tanks). Every time I see a military helo I know that in some capicaty I had my hands on the sucker. I like that.------Larry

Yep. I'm out there now for the week. It is pretty cool seeing everything stripped down into a pile of parts and put back together.

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