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| In April of 1994, the
first Boeing 777 was rolled onto the runway at Seattle.
This was the first aeroplane to be built for which no
prototypes or mock ups had been manufactured for testing
purposes. The 777's first physical test was an actual
flight with a test pilot and crew on board. All the
design work and testing had taken place on a computer.
The manufacture of the Boeing 777 was the largest trial of Computer-assisted Design that had ever taken place. Engineering designers had simulated the construction of the 777's millions of parts and tested it's capabilities and air worthiness before a single part was made. The CAD generated designs were transmitted directly to the CNC machine tools and the accuracy of the system was apparent when Boeing 777 was constructed and found to be in perfect working order, without any alterations or re-alignments having to be made. Boeing estimated that the design and testing of the 777, using CAD technology, took almost 90% less time than design and testing of an aeroplane using conventional methods and involved considerably less manpower.
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