Seminar on Technological Innovation
오퍼레이션석사2학기Ayaka Oda
Variation-selection in the innovation of the retractable airplane landing gear: the Northrop ‘anomaly’
Walter G. Vincenti
1) Summary
The retractable landing gear possesses an interesting history, and we can see how technical change occurs through the variation-selection model. In the early 1930s, many airplanes started to use the retractable landing gear. Though realizing the positive effect of retractable landing gear around the year 1930, Jack Northrop remained using the fixed gear and later even adopted the pants-type gear, because he thought there exist trade-offs with the retractable gear. Dimensions that engineers considered were performance, weight, initial cost, reliability, and maintenance, and for the retractable gear, trade-offs between performance and weight were the major concern. Although ‘trouser’ gear was installed in many of the airplanes, Northrop gradually moved over to the retractable gear in the mid 1930s. Writings back in the 1930s show that uncertainty existed with the retractable landing gear, and Lockheed, which was using retractable gear, expressed doubts about the retractable landing gear as well. The performance advantages of the retractable gear were clear, yet the disadvantages were not, and engineers learned though experience.The author puts a single quotation around anomaly in the title because he considers that the Northrop’s solution to landing-gear problem is not an anomaly indeed. The author mentions that this technological change can be explained by the variation-selection model. Due to the ‘unforesightedness,’the variant,like the pant-type gear, was proposed, and the outcome could not have been foreseen or predicted. No one back then knew what the best outcome was; the retractable landing gear is just an outcome of the practical experience of ‘learning by using.’ Through experience, we get to arrive to the variation-selection solution.
2) Contribution
The variation-selection model can definitely be used to see how new technologies appear and compete with and replace (or do not replace) old technologies. The author interestingly applied the model to the phenomenon of the technical change in landing gear. Without the practical experience that concerned the trade-offs of the new and old technologies, the solution to the problem has not probably been reached. Many theories exist in the world; however, there also exists ‘unforesightedness’ which does not allow us to predict the outcome accurately. Thus, as the variation-selection model suggests, practical experience needs to be conducted when variantsexist. Old technology and new technology, I believe, are always coexisting. They fight over through experience, and eventually, one technology wins over the other and becomes the dominant design. Looking at the seemingly ‘anomaly’ problem-solving process of the Northrop as a variation-selection learning process was very interesting.
3) Critique
Because this article was more like a case study, it is difficult to criticize any shortcomings. I think it would be interesting if we look at other cases where we can see the variation-selection learning process. Also it may be interesting to look at how the environment changed after the technical change in the landing gear occurred, like the study done by Tushman and Anderson (1986).