68 Years Ago Today (10/14/47)

[tom slick]

Chuck Yeager broke the "Sound Barrier" in the Bell X-1.
12 years later we were sending humans into space and flying rocket planes that would eventually go Mach 6.7.
15 years later we were routinely flying Mach 3+ in air breathing aircraft.

At least one BITOG member has flown 2x faster than that X-1 flight.

 

[JHZR2]

And now we can't build a high tech military platform in anywhere near that time or budget. Yep, the private sector is doing things SOOOOO much better and more efficiently...

 

[tom slick]

Maybe we need Bell and North American to come back.

 

[Kira]

"Only" 68 years ago.

I told a kid (12 year old boy) at work that my grandmother remembered hearing about the Wright brothers' flight (she was 5) and lived 19 years beyond the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

I'm happy to report he thought that was cool. Kira

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: tom slick
Maybe we need Bell and North American to come back.
End the corporate lobby of the congress and the top brass.

 

[Benito]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
And now we can't build a high tech military platform in anywhere near that time or budget. Yep, the private sector is doing things SOOOOO much better and more efficiently...


They are doing fantastically. Fantastically well for themselves.

Once upon a time it was really about defense. Then a bunch of people figured out it could also be a welfare system for corporations.

 

[DirkDiggler]

I am sure the Federal Acquisition Regulations have nothing to do with it. . . . /sarc

 

[OneEyeJack]

We were all warned in 1961 by then President Eisenhower about the threat of the military industrial complex. And did we listen....?

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
We were all warned in 1961 by then President Eisenhower about the threat of the military industrial complex. And did we listen....?

+1 exactly - "Beware the Military-Industrial Complex"

 

[tom slick]

http://www.chuckyeager.com/1945-1947-mach-buster

 

[tom slick]

As usual, a post about an interesting topic and immediately feces is rubbed all over it. Predictable...

 

[goodtimes]

We just got back close up pictures of Pluto. The computers we use to read here came out of "wasting money" on things like that. People wanted to participate in the future and the rich paid over 90% tax rate under "Ike" to help build it. Now we reap those investment rewards.

 

[ls1mike]

Pretty amazing to me how far we have come since the Wright Brothers. Orville lived until 1948. I am sure he was amazed at what he saw as aircraft evolved.

 

[dave1251]

I remember learning about this flight. It is amazing what was accomplished with the "primitive" technology of the time.

 

[expat]

 

[sleddriver]

That was indeed a milestone in history! I'll have to watch The Right Stuff again soon. Lot of technology was invented between the X-1 and the X-15, another milestone aircraft.