As an aside to this .... I was in the RAF in the mid 50s, as an Aircraft Engine Mech/Fitter ..asterysk_usa wrote: When I was in the military we had a similar problem, some WWII equipment that was in current service......................
The only time loading on bolts came up was when I was in the Prop Bay assembling De Havilland Variable-Pitch Props for Handley Page Hastings Transports ..
Here, each of the through-bolts (about 4 inches long) holding the two halves of the hub together had to be measured with a Micrometer before insertion and then the nuts tightened to give an extension of a few thousandths of an inch (I don't recall the figures) ..
Everything else was simply hand tightened with ordinary open jawed spanners. (Apart from the Hastings I worked on Shackletons, Canberras and Swifts)
It all worked OK, but now I am horrified at the thought of letting 18 year old kids (many of them National Service, with no real wish to be there), with 3 months theoretical (very little hands-on) training loose, virtually unsupervised, to service aircraft