CNC technology originated from the needs of the aerospace industry. In the late 1940s, an American helicopter company proposed the concept.
The initial idea for CNC machine tools was developed in 1952 by MIT, which produced a three-axis CNC milling machine. By the mid-1950s, this type of CNC milling machine was being used to machine aircraft parts. In the 1960s, CNC systems and programming became increasingly mature and sophisticated, and CNC machine tools were used in various industrial sectors, but the aerospace industry remained the largest user. Some large aerospace factories were equipped with hundreds of CNC machine tools, primarily cutting machines. CNC-machined parts include integral panels, beams, skins, bulkheads, propellers, and mold cavities for aircraft engine casings, shafts, discs, and blades, as well as special cavity surfaces for liquid rocket engine combustion chambers. The early development of CNC machine tools focused on continuous trajectory control.
Continuous trajectory control, also known as contour control, requires the tool to move relative to the workpiece along a predetermined trajectory. Later, the development of point-to-point control CNC machine tools was vigorously promoted. Point-to-point control refers to the movement of the tool from one point to another, as long as it can accurately reach the target, regardless of the movement path.
