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Frank Kendall Porter Jr. P.E.

Mechanical Design Consultant

Thanks for the visit and welcome to the site. What you will find here is some background, a few accomplishments and some lessons learned. The Twin Rudder Theory © stands simply as an exercise.

My background is in mechanical design and I have been privileged to have many superior mentors and peers who guided and influenced me in that discipline. Nothing compares with the classroom of others experience. That experience spans proposal support, concept visualization, optional design paths, design development, simplification and troubleshooting. Along the way, neat software and 3D CAD capability made the process more efficient and accurate. Coupling this with the correct geometric tolerancing applied to working drawings, can ensure a successful outcome.

I am an ardent proponent of computer aided engineering and design and have directly supported many proposals and participated in numerous presentations of new and/or improved concepts to potential and actual customers using software skills. Mental visualization of a 3-dimensional concept leads to electronic generation of a model, which is then developed into its component parts and documented for fabrication. I have employed software as a valuable aid to understanding and realizing solutions to operational hardware problems.

I transitioned to computer-based tasks in the early eighties and have working proficiency with Microsoft Office, 3D Systems Inc.(SLA), varied CAD software and High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS, Ansoft software). HFSS gives analytical confirmation of mechanical solutions to electrical requirements. I am fully receptive to learning new skills, applying them and adding to my software experience base.

I enjoy challenging work either as an individual or as part of a team and work well with all involved. Proposal response to a RFQ is usually an intense activity due to time constraints; sleuthing an operational hardware problem will always have financial benefit; and product enhancement evaluations always have a positive outcome. My objectives are simple. Enhance your capabilities, reduce cost, maintain or accelerate schedules and complete projects under budget. My experience offers an enabling mentor, challenging and training young engineers in design discipline. I contribute to Intellectual Property, participate in securing patents, many of which attained production status and commercial viability.

I have a good mechanical sense for things and appreciate a fine design when I see it. Fine designs are always the result of seasoned labor. I have had some success in the area of mechanical design and look forward to a match of mutual interests. No one is expert in all related disciplines, I can vouch for that. One strength I have exhibited on occasion is, being adept at the mechanical integration of varied subsystems into an acceptable top level system, and the ability to see when work could be conducted independently and when multiple disciplines were required for success.

Late in the last century, a fatal puzzle surfaced in our commercial aviation transportation system. It involved Boeing 737 airframes and it consumed an extraordinary amount of man-hour investigation and sleuthing, in seeking to identify a most probable cause. A candidate airframe component, not a Boeing manufactured item, was identified by Boeing as the most likely culprit. During the investigative period and prior to Boeing's candidate being accepted by the NTSB my Twin Rudder Theory © explaining the possible fault in the airframe was postulated. It seemed to fit within the parameters of the fatal and non-fatal upset incidents that were recorded. Boeing Aircraft Company and the NTSB received my theory. Only the NTSB responded. One might conclude that Boeing knows their airframes better than any one else and guards that information well. My Twin Rudder Theory © stands perhaps, as the only "outside the box" solution for what was considered a very "baffling" aeronautical mystery. If it is not in the dustbin of history yet it will make it.The Twin Rudder Theory© resulted from following the Aliquippa Flight 427 investigation with great interest. During that time I developed a candidate solution as a personal response to the seemingly elusive cause of that Boeing 737 crash. The NTSB has issued a "probable cause" report but has not conclusively identified the root cause. The manufacturer of the "suspect control valve" is adamant in denying negligence regarding the current status of that investigation and report. Determining the root cause of mechanical failure can be difficult to identify. This is especially true when a multitude of disciplines are combined with a very dynamic environment and become almost impossible to replicate in the laboratory. Laboratory testing alone of a single component ("suspect control valve"), absent the airframe and its ambient aeronautical flight profile environment, may yield test results that do not replicate the actual event. The root cause will eventually be identified and my theory a minor footnote in history. Whether the theory becomes validated or not is unimportant. What is important, is finding the root cause, what ever it is.

In any case, I think that you might concede, in the absence of hands-on physical hardware and test equipment, that I have presented a good theoretical example of looking 'outside the box' ……… if nothing else.