Air Force Heavy Press Program (USAF film) by D.O.D.
Why Hacker News recommends it
Cited as historical precedent for large government industrial investment and for modern gigacasting.
What it is
A US Air Force film on the Heavy Press Program, which built some of the world's largest metal forging and extrusion presses for aircraft, starting from German presses taken after WWII.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2021 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Cites cartoonworld · 2021-06 · on “U.S. senators propose 25% tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing”
I know this is so different, but I can't help but think of the 1950's DoD Heavy Press Program[0]. I think about these special industrial monsters a lot when I read about semi fabs. In WW2 after examining the components from aircraft kills, german wing spars would often survive. It was discovered that Germany used unique forged alloy wing spars to achieve their excellent aircraft performance, perplexing allied engineers. These wing spars' strength and weight is critical to the structural properties of modern air frames. Without them, jet air craft like the f-15 would have been impossible. Machining these advanced alloy parts proved difficult, expensive, error prone, and impossible to manufact
Cites remarkEon · 2022-05 · on “The first image of Earth taken from outer space”
There's not really a way to escape Nazi tech today. For another example, the Heavy Press Program brought industrial metal presses out of Germany and into the United States and Russia. [LINK] >Eight of them are still in operation today, manufacturing structural parts for military and commercial aircraft. They still hold the records for size in North America, though they have since been surpassed by presses in Japan, France, Russia and China. [this video]
Cites mrcode007 · 2024-05 · on “Tesla retreats from one-piece "gigacasting" manufacturing process”
Fwiw TSLA is not breaking new ground here and merely follows in the footsteps of the 1950s technology from USAF: [LINK] [this video]