07/18/2021
In the early 2000’s, I was approached by a customer regarding a new design of the man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) military trainer for the Army. It is hard to believe that it has been over 15 years ago. At that time, the project required a complete engineering and manufacturing effort. The customer was to provide a spent Stinger missile tube and gripstock housing. The statement work required that new (at the time) wireless technology be incorporated into the new MANPADS. I started by conducting a full dimensional inspection of every component so a full 3D cad layout could be constructed. Secondly, I sourced items I could not do in house such as investment castings while defining NC code for the mill to machine the rest of the parts. To compound the manufacturing challenge, the MANPADS trainer was low volume product which required special manufacturing processes. The first trainers were crude and very mechanical in their functionality. The current model, on the other hand, has bluetooth technology as well as a on board computer capable of managing every I/O interface on the unit. I must say that this effort has been the most demanding and rewarding challenge of my career.
