Fuller's concern with weight in design was mainly inspired by the practices of the naval architect and aircraft designer.
The question of the performance of boats and planes is, however, not too easily assessed. The strength calculations for an aircraft are subject to a 50% vagueness either side of the fully factored load, according to Gordon (1978, p.329).
Similarly, naval architects may be hard put to give exact predictions of a ship's strength, given the rareness of tests to destruction.
© Paul Taylor 2001