The aerospace industry is a perfect example of a place where what looks perfect on paper doesn’t always work perfectly in practice. In some cases we literally have to go back to the drawing board. Here is how it typically works.

An engineer in one location sits in front of a computer and comes up with a plan. He (or she) uses special CAD software to design and literally draw whatever device he is working on. So if our project is to make a missile, he essentially builds a cyber model of a missile. Then he sends this blueprint to a team that builds an actual mock up.

Another team usually in another part of the country (or world) then prints out the plans and schematics. But often times the plan hits some snags along the way. The people building it find that they have to make some improvisations. Changes to CAD drawings during mockups are then marked, usually just by hand. Using a document imaging service the plans are then sent back to the engineer who revises his work and makes sure everything will work in cyber world. If everything is OK, work on the mockup continues. If not, then sometimes we have to start over again from scratch.

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