Several problems arising in the design and manufacture of airplane surfaces whose solutions use results and techniques from classical algebraic and differential geometry will be presented. They are the design of algorithms for flat patterns ('developing' non-developable surfaces), for approximating curve and surface offsets ( parallel curves and surfaces) and for approximating conic lofted surfaces. The emphasis of the talk will be on the possibility of applying techniques from 'pure' (as opposed to 'applied') mathematics to industrial problems.

1996-1997 Mathematics in High Performance Computing