Technological Change through Product Improvement in Aircraft Turbine Engines

Abstract

An area of R&D activity often as important as new product R&D is R&D directed at improving an existing object, often called product improvement. Multiple regression techniques were used to estimate a multi-dimensional technology tradeoff surface for U.S. aircraft turbine engines. Product-improvement engines embody a higher level of technology than their original versions, but the rate of technological advance is significantly less than the long-run average for new designs. Further, thrust-growth product improvement is subject to diminishing returns with respect to dollar resources.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 1973
Accession Number
AD0769911

Entities

People

  • Robert Shishko

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircraft Industry
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Cost Reductions
  • Databases
  • Jet Aircraft
  • Jet Engines
  • Organizational Structure
  • Rotor Blades (Turbomachinery)
  • Turbine Components
  • Turbines
  • Turbofan Engines
  • Turbojet Engines
  • Turboshaft Engines

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Industrial Economics