“I would rather rely on static and dynamic load analysis.”
Had a course at Architectural School, called Statics. This is just what that course was about. “Put a 200.13 ton truck 40 feet onto this truss bridge. Figure out the tension or compression on a steel truss on the other side of the 103.8 foot bridge.” Problems easily took 5/6 hours to solve,,,, and with a sliderule! One of those courses that you got 100 one day, and 0 the next day.
No wonder this analysis got computerized. All the simultaneous equations to solve with the trusses.
An airplane guy told me they would go from slide rule/drawing board to the flight line in 2 to 3 yrs.
Now with CAD and computers it takes 8 to 10.