[Jeff Higgins]

Cool stuff, Mike, most certainly. And certainly the timing of our efforts was simply too early in the game. We couldn't afford to dick around with it at the time, so we were forced to make some decisions. By the time scanning technologies had matured to a level of usefulness we could actually use, we really no longer had the need. We had redesigned everything we needed off the board and into in the digital world and have long since moved on.

I have spent a good part of my career in CATIA - thousands of hours on V2, V3, V4, and now V5. I've done an awful lot of complex compound contour surface modeling in my day, from aero surfaces to interior surfaces.

I left our Interiors division about eight years ago and got into the repair end of the biz (AOG), but before I left Interiors, I was able to leave my mark on a lot of what the flying public sees. I'm proud to say I completed the final surface modeling, and designed all the part forming tooling, for parts of every currently produced Boeing commercial aircraft interior (and many flight control surfaces and other stuff).

When you take your seat in any Next Gen 737, any 767 -200LR or -300ER, any 777, 747-400, or 787, look around - the contoured ceiling panels, sidewall (window) panels, door bustles, and contoured stowbin doors are all my work. Every one of them. An Interior consultant actually concepts and designs all of this stuff, but when it came to putting their shapes and ideas into digital data, that's where I started.

Since my return to AOG (I was there years ago), I've made extensive use of RPM parts to help vet out ideas for repair tooling. It's a great help to be able to "grow" parts of a proposed tool, grab some mechanics and head out to an airplane, and play with it before they have to deploy with the real one to some god-forsaken corner of the globe to fix an airplane. What a huge boon that has been for us. Now we don't have to go along as much.

Anyway, lots of cool stuff going on in this world.