Sometimes, the most brilliant engineering manifests itself in simple mechanisms. The dual, single acting solenoid valves that control hot and cold water flow in consumer washing machines as an example. Small and lightweight, the unit uses commodity grade polypropylene, handle water flow of widely varying pressure and temperature, and cycle repeatedly to regulate wash temperature. It’s one of the simplest solenoid valves in service, yet it functions for years in a difficult environment, and costs a little to manufacture. Unchanged in decades, it’s a design that has evolved to near perfection. 

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Internal combustion engine valves, or poppet valves, are conceptually simple components that have been around for well over a century. Producing them in mass quantities is done with special-purpose machine tools and interesting friction welding technology to meet stem with head. But as internal combustion engine demand is predicted to flat-line and eventually fall with the advance of electric vehicles, the science and art of valve making would appear to be on the way out.

A recent auction of the assets of a technical valve making facility in Germany chose special-purpose machine tools for valve making on the block at prices a tiny fraction of what they cost new. Valves may be on the way out, but more significantly, the concept of highly specialized, single-purpose machine tools for mass production is on the block as well. 

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Devices are useless if the instructions can’t teach users how to operate them. 

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Millions of people use this technology to light the barbecue grills: a butane lighter. It works by the piezoelectric effect, applying pressure to a crystal of lead zirconium titanate to create a potential of several thousand volts, creating a spark. It’s low in cost, but spark ignition is a very poor way to ignite fuel air mixtures, especially when the mixture stoichiometry is uncontrolled, as in a gas grill. Better solutions are flame ignition or stratified charge, with the spark igniting a locally rich mixture and the resulting flame front lighting off the main vapour volume. 

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Keeping equipment running in the field has always required a sensible service parts organization. A century ago, automobiles would frequently be laid up for weeks waiting for replacement parts—sometimes for something as common as tires. Today, consumers expect rapid access to maintenance and repair components, and supply chains have evolved to reflect this. Pricing of those replacement parts, however, is another matter. Cost of manufacture is only one component of MRO parts pricing, and the result for consumers is eye-watering cost for relatively simple replacement parts. Jim Anderton describes one example: a simple gas cap. 

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In the early 1950s, Convair—now General Dynamics—built a prototype of a very high-performance jet fighter for the U.S. Air Force. It promised to bring supersonic speed, but the prototype XF-102 had one problem: it couldn’t break the sound barrier. The reason was because of the shape of the airframe, and the solution involved the application of the theory that seems counter intuitive by the standards of non-compressible flow dynamics: area rule.

Based on World War II German research, NACA engineer Richard Whitcomb developed it into “area rule” and the waspwaisted look of supersonic aircraft fuselages of the 50s and 60s were a direct result. Area rule is still effective today, and Boom Supersonic’s new Overture airliner is an elegant, modern example. 

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In the 1950s, brands like Nash, Packard, Studebaker, Hudson and Kaiser were significant players in the automotive industry. All eventually disappeared, as scale economies forced automakers to get bigger to stay price competitive. In those days, automakers used proprietary bodies, engines and transmissions to differentiate the product, but the modern electric vehicle market is going in a different direction.

Entire EV drive lines as well as batteries are now outsourced, and few EV buyers make a purchase based on the technical excellence of a motor or battery. With outside suppliers doing the heavy engineering lifting, multiple EV manufacturers have surfaced. It’s unlikely that all will survive going forward.

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Space is intrinsically dramatic, but there’s a little secret to human spaceflight that few understand: machines went there first. By the time humans orbited the Earth in the early 60s, satellites had already measured a great deal about the near-Earth environment. Even 50 years ago, machines did the trailblazing for the people. And If AI continues to develop as fast as it is right now, we will rapidly reach a point where risking humans in space exploration will become pointless.

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Cargo airplanes are traditionally derived from two sources: passenger aircraft designs and military airlifters. The advances in drone flying, however, suggest an interesting possibility: simplified fixed-wing cargo airplanes without pressurization. Operating from secondary airports, these specialized cargo airframes could lower the cost of air freight and create a new class of large airplane. 

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The recent tragic loss of all hands aboard the OceanGate Titan submersible has generated a great deal of criticism over the choice of carbon fibre as a structural material for the vehicle. Carbon fiber has a long history in aerospace and high-performance automotive applications, and it is a proven, durable and safe material in everything from racing cars to space satellites. It can be used for submersibles, as well, but composite materials in general behave differently from metals. Both ultimate and cyclical loading is important and like many aerospace structures, a fatigue life based on number of pressurization cycles may be essential, regardless of the design safety factors. 

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