A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics , design , electronics , and software programming . A prototype is generally used to evaluate a new design to enhance precision by system analysts and users. Prototyping serves to provide specifications for a real, working system rather than a theoretical one. Physical prototyping has a long history, and paper prototyping and virtual prototyping now extensively complement it. In some design workflow models, creating a prototype (a process sometimes called materialization ) is the step between the formalization and the evaluation of an idea.
58-605: The Sud-Ouest SO.6020 Espadon (Swordfish) was a French post-war prototype interceptor designed and built by SNCASO during the late 1940s. The French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) judged the design a failure despite some records being set and cancelled plans to put it into service in 1951. Only four aircraft were built and they were later modified to serve as testbeds for the mixed rocket and turbojet -powered SNCASO SO.9000 Trident program. Only one badly damaged aircraft survives. Designer Lucien Servanty and his team at SNCASO began work on jet-powered fighters in 1945 and submitted
116-506: A cockpit armored against 12.7-millimeter (0.5 in) shells, and an armament of six 20-millimeter (0.8 in) or four 30-millimeter (1.2 in) autocannon . The Air Force ordered three prototypes on 28 June, with plans to order more than 230 interceptors if the aircraft satisfied its requirements. As built, the aircraft was a metal-skinned mid-wing monoplane powered by a 22.2- kilonewton (5,000 lb f ) Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine licence-built by Hispano-Suiza . It had
174-639: A mockup , which is an inert representation of a machine's appearance, often made of some non-durable substance. An electronics designer often builds the first prototype from breadboard or stripboard or perfboard , typically using "DIP" packages. However, more and more often the first functional prototype is built on a "prototype PCB " almost identical to the production PCB, as PCB manufacturing prices fall and as many components are not available in DIP packages, but only available in SMT packages optimized for placing on
232-727: A second (thus defining the speed of light to be 299,792,458 meters per second). In many sciences, from pathology to taxonomy, prototype refers to a disease, species, etc. which sets a good example for the whole category. In biology, prototype is the ancestral or primitive form of a species or other group; an archetype. For example, the Senegal bichir is regarded as the prototypes of its genus, Polypterus . Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9 d%27Etudes pour la Propulsion par R%C3%A9action The Société d'Études pour la Propulsion par Réaction (SEPR) (in French : Jet Propulsion Research Company )
290-425: A PCB. Builders of military machines and aviation prefer the terms "experimental" and "service test". In electronics , prototyping means building an actual circuit to a theoretical design to verify that it works, and to provide a physical platform for debugging it if it does not. The prototype is often constructed using techniques such as wire wrapping or using a breadboard , stripboard or perfboard , with
348-502: A combination of jet and rocket power. The rocket would be used for performance at high altitude, increasing either speed or ceiling. French studies for mixed-power interceptors began in 1948. By 1953 the SNCASO Trident aircraft was flying. This was an unusual design, with a single three-chambered SEPR rocket engine as the main engine, assisted for take-off and low altitude flight by two Turbomeca Marboré turbojets. The Trident
406-535: A design proposal that the company designated as the SO.6020 when the French Air Force issued a specification for a single-seat assault fighter-interceptor on 25 March 1946. The aircraft had to have a speed in excess of 900 kilometers per hour (559 mph) at an altitude of 10,000 meters (32,808 ft), an endurance of one hour with 15 minutes in combat, a take-off distance less than 1,200 meters (3,937 ft),
464-474: A dive, but encountered serious buffeting at Mach 0.75 in horizontal flight and handled as poorly as its predecessors. Unhappy with its performance, the French Air Force cancelled its plans to put the SO.6021 into production on 5 July 1951. By this time, the Air Force had already decided to use the aircraft to support the SO.9000 program by testing various small turbojet engines on wingtip mounts. These included
522-529: A favorite among US Military modelers), railroad equipment, motor trucks, motorcycles, and space-ships (real-world such as Apollo/Saturn Vs, or the ISS). As of 2014, basic rapid prototype machines (such as 3D printers ) cost about $ 2,000, but larger and more precise machines can cost as much as $ 500,000. In architecture , prototyping refers to either architectural model making (as form of scale modelling ) or as part of aesthetic or material experimentation , such as
580-399: A fuel, in the ratio of 2.4:1. Later fuels were a mixture of 41% furfuryl alcohol, 41% xylidine and 18% methyl alcohol , called furaline. Unusually, the turbopumps for some of SEPR's engine were mechanically driven from outside. A mechanical drive shaft from the accessory drive of the main turbojet provided the 93 brake horsepower (69 kW) needed at 5,070 rpm, provided that
638-608: A half-thrust setting. The Mirage and its distinctive delta wing planform began with the prototype MD.550 Mystère-Delta . This bore little relation, other than its name, to the Dassault Mystère ; France's swept-wing fighter of the period. The delta aircraft was smaller, around two thirds of the Mystère's weight and was powered by two small Viper turbojets and the SEPR 66 rocket. All three of these engines barely exceeded
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#1732772787780696-460: A one- spar swept wing fitted with leading-edge slats , slotted flaps and ailerons . The wide-track tricycle landing gear retracted into the fuselage while the main landing gear struts retracted into the bottom of the wing. The canopy of the cockpit was unusually tall because the Air Force decided to provide the pilot with a parachute despite the Heinkel ejection seat . The SO.6020 had
754-499: A time to the initial prototype. In many programming languages , a function prototype is the declaration of a subroutine or function (and should not be confused with software prototyping). This term is rather C / C++ -specific; other terms for this notion are signature , type and interface . In prototype-based programming (a form of object-oriented programming ), new objects are produced by cloning existing objects, which are called prototypes. The term may also refer to
812-467: A total fuel capacity of 2,150 litres (470 imp gal; 570 US gal) divided amongst four fuel tanks. The unarmed first prototype made its maiden flight on 12 November 1948, delayed by the late delivery of its radio equipment. This aircraft had a ventral air intake for the engine that proved to be very inefficient and tended to collect objects from the runway. This caused the prototype to be very underpowered and it failed to meet nearly all of
870-472: A way that the Planck constant h is prescribed a value of exactly 6.626 070 15 × 10 joule-second (J⋅s) Until 1960, the meter was defined by a platinum-iridium prototype bar with two marks on it (that were, by definition, spaced apart by one meter), the international prototype of the metre , and in 1983 the meter was redefined to be the distance in free space covered by light in 1/299,792,458 of
928-518: Is a form of functional or working prototype. The justification for its creation is usually a data migration , data integration or application implementation project and the raw materials used as input are an instance of all the relevant data which exists at the start of the project. The objectives of data prototyping are to produce: To achieve this, a data architect uses a graphical interface to interactively develop and execute transformation and cleansing rules using raw data. The resultant data
986-517: Is becoming practical to eliminate the creation of a physical prototype (except possibly at greatly reduced scales for promotional purposes), instead modeling all aspects of the final product as a computer model . An example of such a development can be seen in Boeing 787 Dreamliner , in which the first full sized physical realization is made on the series production line. Computer modeling is now being extensively used in automotive design, both for form (in
1044-431: Is possible that a prototype may fail to perform acceptably although the production design may have been sound. Conversely, prototypes may perform acceptably but the production design and outcome may prove unsuccessful. In general, it can be expected that individual prototype costs will be substantially greater than the final production costs due to inefficiencies in materials and processes. Prototypes are also used to revise
1102-414: Is then evaluated and the rules refined. Beyond the obvious visual checking of the data on-screen by the data architect, the usual evaluation and validation approaches are to use Data profiling software and then to insert the resultant data into a test version of the target application and trial its use. When developing software or digital tools that humans interact with, a prototype is an artifact that
1160-499: Is used as the standard of measurement of some physical quantity to base all measurement of that physical quantity against. Sometimes this standard object is called an artifact . In the International System of Units ( SI ), there remains no prototype standard since May 20, 2019 . Before that date, the last prototype used was the international prototype of the kilogram , a solid platinum-iridium cylinder kept at
1218-409: Is used to ask and answer a design question. Prototypes provide the means for examining design problems and evaluating solutions. HCI practitioners can employ several different types of prototypes: In the field of scale modeling (which includes model railroading , vehicle modeling, airplane modeling , military modeling, etc.), a prototype is the real-world basis or source for a scale model—such as
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#17327727877801276-594: The Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) in Sèvres France (a suburb of Paris ) that by definition was the mass of exactly one kilogram . Copies of this prototype are fashioned and issued to many nations to represent the national standard of the kilogram and are periodically compared to the Paris prototype. Now the kilogram is redefined in such
1334-528: The Forty Wall House open source material prototyping centre in Australia. Architects prototype to test ideas structurally, aesthetically and technically. Whether the prototype works or not is not the primary focus: architectural prototyping is the revelatory process through which the architect gains insight. In the science and practice of metrology , a prototype is a human-made object that
1392-589: The Greek πρωτότυπον prototypon , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος prototypos , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος protos , "first" and τύπος typos , "impression" (originally in the sense of a mark left by a blow, then by a stamp struck by a die (note "typewriter"); by implication a scar or mark; by analogy a shape i.e. a statue, (figuratively) style, or resemblance; a model for imitation or illustrative example—note "typical"). Prototypes explore different aspects of an intended design: In general,
1450-536: The Prototype Javascript Framework . Additionally, the term may refer to the prototype design pattern. Continuous learning approaches within organizations or businesses may also use the concept of business or process prototypes through software models. The concept of prototypicality is used to describe how much a website deviates from the expected norm, and leads to a lowering of user preference for that site's design. A data prototype
1508-468: The sound barrier in level flight on 15 December 1953. The proposed production variant, the SO.6021, was lightened in the hopes of improving its performance by reducing the amount of armor plate carried and shrinking the canopy. It was fitted with an enlarged wing and a new vertical stabilizer and weighed about 400 kilograms (880 lb) less than the first SO.6020 prototype. The aircraft made its maiden flight on 3 September 1950. It could reach Mach 0.96 in
1566-421: The styling and aerodynamics of the vehicle) and in function—especially for improving vehicle crashworthiness and in weight reduction to improve mileage. The most common use of the word prototype is a functional, although experimental, version of a non-military machine (e.g., automobiles, domestic appliances, consumer electronics) whose designers would like to have built by mass production means, as opposed to
1624-631: The 1950s, there was much concern in Western Europe about attacks by fleets of high-flying bombers, such as the Tu-95 Bear . These pre-dated the development of either practical afterburners or surface-to-air missiles and so means to improve the performance of conventional aircraft were sought. Particularly in France, and to some extent in the UK, mixed-power interceptor aircraft were studied, with
1682-406: The 4 kN (900 lbf) Turbomeca Marboré and the more powerful Turbomeca Gabizo engine, in both afterburning and non-afterburning configurations. At one point it was flying with one of each type despite their differing weights and sizes. These tests lasted until 1956. The second prototype was subsequently converted into the SO.6026 with a SEPR 25 rocket below the tail pipe, also to support
1740-500: The Golden Age 1946–1974 General characteristics Performance Armament Prototype A prototype can also mean a typical example of something such as in the use of the derivation ' prototypical '. This is a useful term in identifying objects, behaviours and concepts which are considered the accepted norm and is analogous with terms such as stereotypes and archetypes . The word prototype derives from
1798-434: The SO.6025 to support the mixed-power SNCASO SO.9000 program. It reverted to the ventral air intake of the first prototype, albeit in an extended and revised form. The rear section of the intake fairing was extended to house a 14.7-kilonewton (3,300 lbf) SEPR 25 liquid-fuel rocket engine . The aircraft also received the enlarged wing used by the SO.6021 pre-production fighter and an enlarged vertical stabilizer . Some of
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1856-448: The SO.9000 program. It first flew with the rocket installed on 15 October 1951, but the first rocket-powered flight did not occur until 26 March 1953. It demonstrated its rocket's ability to climb at the 1953 Paris Air Show, but only made a total of 28 flights before it was placed in storage in early 1955, of which only 13 used its rocket. Data from The Complete Book of Fighters ; X-Planes of Europe II: Military Prototype Aircraft from
1914-404: The creation of prototypes will differ from creation of the final product in some fundamental ways: Engineers and prototype specialists attempt to minimize the impact of these differences on the intended role for the prototype. For example, if a visual prototype is not able to use the same materials as the final product, they will attempt to substitute materials with properties that closely simulate
1972-407: The cycle returns to customer evaluation. The cycle starts by listening to the user, followed by building or revising a mock-up, and letting the user test the mock-up , then back. There is now a new generation of tools called Application Simulation Software which help quickly simulate application before their development. Extreme programming uses iterative design to gradually add one feature at
2030-403: The design for the purposes of reducing costs through optimization and refinement. It is possible to use prototype testing to reduce the risk that a design may not perform as intended, however prototypes generally cannot eliminate all risk. Building the full design is often expensive and can be time-consuming, especially when repeated several times—building the full design, figuring out what
2088-426: The engine was running at full speed. As the propellants are hypergolic, the engine can be ignited repeatedly simply by engaging the clutch drive to the pump. The engine's single combustion chamber was regeneratively cooled by the acid oxidiser. The 841 used TX2 ( triethylamine xylidine ) as a fuel. The engine was designed for simplicity and reliability, rather than sophisticated control. The pilot's only control
2146-442: The engine. For reliable hypergolic ignition, a small TX tank was retained to supply the engine's pilot ignition valve. This fuel supply was controlled very simply, by displacement under fuel pressure acting on a piston in the tank. TX capacity limited the engine to just two or three starts per flight. The forward bay tank could also be used as an additional fuel tank for the main jet engine. The main tankage could not though supply
2204-435: The flow to the engine. SNCASO decided upon a pair of protruding intakes on the sides of the fuselage under the trailing edge of the wing roots . The aircraft was fitted with six cannon in the nose. Flight testing showed that there was little improvement in the supply of air to the engine and that it was not very maneuverable as a lot of force was required to move the rudder . The aircraft's longitudinal and transverse stability
2262-508: The full design. In technology research, a technology demonstrator is a prototype serving as proof-of-concept and demonstration model for a new technology or future product, proving its viability and illustrating conceivable applications. In large development projects, a testbed is a platform and prototype development environment for rigorous experimentation and testing of new technologies, components, scientific theories and computational tools. With recent advances in computer modeling it
2320-437: The intended final materials. Engineers and prototyping specialists seek to understand the limitations of prototypes to exactly simulate the characteristics of their intended design. Prototypes represent some compromise from the final production design. This is due to the skill and choices of the designer(s), and the inevitable inherent limitations of a prototype. Due to differences in materials, processes and design fidelity, it
2378-460: The internal fuel tanks were converted for the Furaline (C 13 H 12 N 2 O) rocket fuel and the nitric acid oxidizer was carried in a tank between the intake and the rocket where it could be safely dumped if necessary. The aircraft first flew on 28 December 1949, solely using its turbojet, and made its first rocket-powered flight on 10 June 1952. It became the first European aircraft to break
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2436-429: The problems are and how to solve them, then building another full design. As an alternative, rapid prototyping or rapid application development techniques are used for the initial prototypes, which implement part, but not all, of the complete design. This allows designers and manufacturers to rapidly and inexpensively test the parts of the design that are most likely to have problems, solve those problems, and then build
2494-411: The prototyping platform, or replace it with only the microcontroller chip and the circuitry that is relevant to their product. Prototype software is often referred to as alpha grade , meaning it is the first version to run. Often only a few functions are implemented, the primary focus of the alpha is to have a functional base code on to which features may be added. Once alpha grade software has most of
2552-438: The real EMD GP38-2 locomotive—which is the prototype of Athearn 's (among other manufacturers) locomotive model. Technically, any non-living object can serve as a prototype for a model, including structures, equipment, and appliances, and so on, but generally prototypes have come to mean full-size real-world vehicles including automobiles (the prototype 1957 Chevy has spawned many models), military equipment (such as M4 Shermans,
2610-463: The required features integrated into it, it becomes beta software for testing of the entire software and to adjust the program to respond correctly during situations unforeseen during development. Often the end users may not be able to provide a complete set of application objectives, detailed input, processing, or output requirements in the initial stage. After the user evaluation, another prototype will be built based on feedback from users, and again
2668-459: The result being a circuit that is electrically identical to the design but not physically identical to the final product. Open-source tools like Fritzing exist to document electronic prototypes (especially the breadboard-based ones) and move toward physical production. Prototyping platforms such as Arduino also simplify the task of programming and interacting with a microcontroller . The developer can choose to deploy their invention as-is using
2726-405: The rocket and 1.8 with. Altitudes of 65,000 feet (20,000 m) could be reached in a zoom climb, or 75,000 feet (23,000 m) on rocket thrust. A typical training sortie duration of 45 minutes would be reduced to under 30, with high Mach and rocket use. SEPR's auxiliary rocket engines were based on hypergolic fuel chemistry of 98.5% nitric acid (HNO 3 ) oxidiser with furfuryl alcohol as
2784-435: The rocket and could not afford its fuel consumption. The original goal of intercepting high-flying bombers also seemed to be receding in favour of missiles, for both offence and defence. The Mirage's rocket was thus mounted as a removable pod which could be replaced with a 90 imperial gallons (410 L) jet fuel tank for additional range. Only the high altitude interception would still use it. To retain balance as rocket fuel
2842-436: The rocket oxidiser was potentially somewhat hazardous and so it was carried out away from other aircraft, by groundcrew in protective clothing and with a fire crew standing by in order to flush away any spillage. Acid refuelling was carried out above a steel drip tray, with the acid flow and tank vent return through closed pipework with a sightglass to observe full tanks. Performance in training sorties achieved Mach 1.4 without
2900-420: The specifications. It had an engine failure in flight on 1 December 1949 that caused a belly landing, but it was repaired and returned to flight testing. It was later modified for flying trials with small wingtip-mounted turbojets. The second prototype was scheduled to make its first flight on 15 August 1948, but this was delayed until 16 September 1949, possibly due to the need to revise the air intake to improve
2958-402: The stored air supply which then opened the pneumatic LP cocks. A second valve, after a delay, engaged the turbopump clutch. HP cocks were opened by a single hydraulic piston, driven by fuel pressure controlled through a third timed valve. Both fuel and oxidiser first flowed through a small pilot valve for ignition, before their main valves opened. Correct opening of all four valves was monitored by
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#17327727877803016-463: The thrust of the Mystère's ATAR 101D , although they also only weighed about half of the ATAR. The Mirage III adopted the more developed and afterburning ATAR 9 . As the delta wing considerably increased the supersonic capacity of the aircraft, rocket power was retained. This was the first European aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight. It was recognised that most mission profiles did not require
3074-449: The timer control, to ensure a safe mixture. A dump valve system was provided for any residual acid. Oxidiser loaded was burned in flight before landing, or dumped. Bulk production of the engines was carried out by Hispano-Suiza . For simplicity of fuel supply, the TX2 fuel of the SEPR 84-1 was replaced with standard jet TR-0 kerosene as the SEPR 84–4. This required a few changes to
3132-478: Was a French research and manufacturing company founded in 1944 which specialised in the development of liquid-fuelled rocket engines during the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The SEPR 841 is a liquid-fuelled rocket engine used as an auxiliary power unit for the Dassault Mirage III mixed-power high-altitude interceptor aircraft of the 1960s. The engine was one of several similar developed by SEPR. In
3190-464: Was a simple on/off switch, with the valves and pump then controlled by an electromechanical timer. Power for actuating the main valves was then obtained by a compressed air bottle or fuel pressure. The tanks were air pressurised, the fuel tank by engine compressor bleed air and the oxidiser tank by ram air and additionally by the stored air bottle. Ram air was taken from the supersonic inlet boundary layer bleeds. A single timer-controlled valve opened
3248-496: Was consumed, the rocket pack was in two parts. The 310 litres (69 imp gal) nitric acid oxidiser tank was mounted directly ahead of the rocket engine. A smaller 150 litres (32 imp gal) TX2 Furaline fuel tank was mounted in the front bay just behind the cockpit, replacing the cannon pack. When in the rocket-powered interceptor role, the aircraft would only be armed with missiles. The rocket pack could be swapped in around 20 minutes by removing six bolts. Fuelling
3306-613: Was difficult to handle on the low-powered turbojets alone and was thirsty for fuel on rocket power. This primary use of the rocket was not repeated in the future: later aircraft would be jet-powered, with the rocket reserved for high-speed dashes. Later rockets would also be considerably less powerful than the Trident's SEPR 48–1. A development for the Trident II aircraft was the two chamber SEPR 631 engine. The two chambers could be fired separately. Although not throttleable, this did give
3364-403: Was poor and it was not effective as a gunnery platform above speeds of 600 kilometres per hour (373 mph) as the controls required more effort to move at high speeds. Landing characteristics were rated as good although it had marginally effective speed brakes . The third prototype was intended to serve as an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft , but it was converted while under construction into
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