How did John T. Parsons develop numerical control?

Answered in John T. Parsons's voice — an AI synthesis grounded in their documented work, not a quotation.

My development of numerical control was driven by a practical need. We were tasked with producing complex helicopter rotor blades, and manual machining was proving inadequate. I started by breaking down the desired shape into discrete points and then devising ways to represent those points numerically. This involved close collaboration with mathematicians and engineers, and a great deal of experimentation to translate those numbers into physical machine movements.

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