Tag: career

  • A Week as a Mechanic

    Image from National Aviation Academy, “What Does an Aircraft Mechanic Do?”

    Over the past week, I had the opportunity to take a training session where I get to experience working as a mechanic. The training was designed for engineers to get a perspective on what a mechanic has to go through to build and assemble a product.

    It was a very unique experience for me as I get to learn how to use all the power tools that I don’t normally have a chance to, such as drill motor, hilok runner and rivet gun. Prior to the training, I did not know that it requires multiple steps to drill just a single fastener point, from positioning the point to drilling pilot hole and aligning parts to drilling full-size hole. Being a mechanic is physically demanding and takes a lot of skill to build a product that passes quality inspection. Oftentimes, rework is required for any job that does not meet quality check, and the process of rework can cause more damage to the part than what it started with.

    Toward the end of the week, I also got to learn a little bit about wiring, how to put together a wire bundle and bonding and grounding check. Electrical work requires certification and all mechanics have to go through rigorous training in order to be certified to work on the part. They also have to get tested to renew their certificates every year.

    This training experience has enabled me to get a better understanding of the build process and what it takes to manufacture a product. Since I work as a design engineer, I get to develop the product from the very early conceptual stage. Having this experience will definitely help be become a better designer and hopefully be able to make the work of the mechanics a little easier through simple and thoughtful design.

    The image above shows the assembly that I built over the course of the training. The assembly was released to me as a personal property to take home at the end of the week. It does not contain company proprietary information.

  • My Career

    I am a mechanical engineer with over five years of work experience in design development. I am currently working as a Structural Design Engineer on wing leading/trailing edges and winglet team for Boeing 737 program. Prior to joining the airframe team, I have also worked in payloads where I was responsible for designing interior commodities including windscreen, closet, partitions, class dividers, etc. I find engineering challenging but also rewarding because there is always something new to learn and I enjoy getting to understand how things work.

    Image from Marissa Nall via Puget Sound Business Journal

    Before Boeing, I’ve also worked for a smaller company called Sekisui Aerospace where I was involved in design development for a 777 passenger to freighter conversion program. As a design engineer, I get to work on the initial concept development and follow through the entire process from manufacturing to installation of the final products, supporting production as well as airline customer in troubleshooting in-service issues.

Kim Nguyen – IS 5320