As the main airframe engineer at one of the top aircraft builders in the world, you spend your days focused on creating new designs with great precision while chasing aerodynamic perfection. When an invitation landed on your desk—an exclusive pass to the International Aerospace Exhibition—you realized this wasn’t just any ordinary event. This could reshape how your company approaches aircraft development.
The airshow held a rare promise. It included a classified presentation of a prototype aircraft with innovative airframe technology. a small group of professionals in the industry could attend, and you were lucky enough to be one of them.
The Prototype Unveiled
The room buzzed with energy as engineers, designers, and aviation leaders took their seats. When the lights went down and an image of the prototype filled the massive screen, the crowd let out an audible gasp. In your fifteen years working in aerospace engineering, you had never seen anything like it.
The cutting-edge airframe had bold geometric features built to take aerodynamics to a new level. Every angle and curve looked crafted to reduce air resistance and cut drag as much as possible. The presenter described how this groundbreaking design could:
- Cut fuel use by up to 30%
- Expand flight range
- Boost overall stability in the air
- Lessen the effects of turbulence during flights
Your thoughts spun as you imagined the possibilities. This could be what your team needed to create the new project blueprints being worked on back at headquarters.
The Problem
When the presentation wrapped up, a harsh reality hit. The organizers left no room for doubt: no photos, no recordings, and not a single piece of material could leave the venue. The large pamphlets showing detailed images of the prototype were only there to view during the event. Security guards positioned at the exits enforced these strict rules.
You focused on the oversized pamphlet fixed to the display wall memorizing every feature—the shape of the wings, the sleek fuselage, the structure of the tail, and the position of the engines. It wasn’t just another plane; it felt like a breakthrough in design that might transform your future projects.
A Clever Opportunity
As the exhibition wrapped up and people started leaving, something odd caught your attention. The event staff were tearing up the marketing materials feeding the big pamphlets into powerful shredders and then tossing the remains. It was likely a security precaution, but it also seemed like a surprising chance to gain an advantage.
Your engineering brain always ready to fix tough problems came up with a plan. If grabbing the full image wasn’t an option maybe you could work with the parts that were tossed away. The shredded bits weren’t useless. They still held all the details—just in pieces.
Once the location cleared out and things calmed down, you headed to the trash area. From the pile of garbage, you collected the shredded pieces of the pamphlet you had been studying earlier. Every piece held a small part of that groundbreaking airframe design.
Piecing It Together
Back in your hotel room, you laid out the fragments across the table. This wasn’t going to be a simple put-it-back-together project. Your entire success relied on how well you could remember and rebuild the prototype using just those brief moments you had to study it.
The task was straightforward:
- Examine the original design and memorize it.
- Commit every key aspect of the airframe layout to memory.
- Piece together the full picture in the following jigsaw puzzle.
Your aircraft program’s future rests on how well you can solve this. Can you rebuild advanced technology using memory and fragments?
