3 ms·

All really interesting & immediately commercially useful. So why aren't these research projects being funded by Boeing, Lockheed etc? Why are we using NASA as t

by jgeada 11y ago

All really interesting & immediately commercially useful. So why aren't these research projects being funded by Boeing, Lockheed etc? Why are we using NASA as the R&D division of commercial companies? Shouldn't NASA's role be more blue-sky research for things we don't know yet are feasible or possible?

markvdb 11y ago
It's one way to package development subsidies to private players. One of the reasons could be to minimise trade agreement disputes the kind of "Airbus got x€ of direct subsidies!" versus "But Boeing got x$ subsidies!"?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
Ankaios 11y ago
The quiet supersonic transport is potentially commercially viable, but without a demonstration that the technique actually works in flight, the size and risk of the investment necessary to try it have seemed to be too large for the private sector. (The concept has been out there for a while.) Another motivation is a desire to understand the design principles and behavior of such concepts at a deep and general level. That's not usually something industry does—often industry's level of analysis and experimentation is just "good enough" to get a job done. If that gets repeated a few times, it leads to both wasted effort and a proliferation of mediocre designs. (As another example, that motivation also drove the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—NASA's predecessor agency—to undertake an exhaustive study of airfoils. NASA still undertakes quite a bit of research from a similar perspective.)
- chrisatumd 11y ago
  I saw a discussion about a supersonic jet company on HN not too long ago. http://boom.aero/ http://boom.aero/ Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329286
  - Ankaios 11y ago
    As far as I've heard so far, they aren't planning to develop a low-boom design any time soon. Their first planes will be conventional from that perspective. (That's confirmed by a post by their founder, Blake Scholl, in that discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329634. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329634.)
bane 11y ago
This is basically how R&D works these days. The government (very frequently the military) assumes the risk of very high risk research and farms that work out to national labs, government research institutions, large research universities, then the most promising looking avenues are trickled down to industry, lower tier research universities, industrial research labs, etc. At some point, all the science will get done and the work will slide over to more engineering type work and we'll end up with a neat plane/gun/database/internet/drug/medical test/etc.

by jgeada 11y ago

markvdb 11y ago

It's one way to package development subsidies to private players. One of the reasons could be to minimise trade agreement disputes the kind of "Airbus got x€ of direct subsidies!" versus "But Boeing got x$ subsidies!"?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

Ankaios 11y ago

The quiet supersonic transport is potentially commercially viable, but without a demonstration that the technique actually works in flight, the size and risk of the investment necessary to try it have seemed to be too large for the private sector. (The concept has been out there for a while.) Another motivation is a desire to understand the design principles and behavior of such concepts at a deep and general level. That's not usually something industry does—often industry's level of analysis and experimentation is just "good enough" to get a job done. If that gets repeated a few times, it leads to both wasted effort and a proliferation of mediocre designs. (As another example, that motivation also drove the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics—NASA's predecessor agency—to undertake an exhaustive study of airfoils. NASA still undertakes quite a bit of research from a similar perspective.)

chrisatumd 11y ago
I saw a discussion about a supersonic jet company on HN not too long ago. http://boom.aero/ http://boom.aero/ Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329286 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329286
- Ankaios 11y ago
  As far as I've heard so far, they aren't planning to develop a low-boom design any time soon. Their first planes will be conventional from that perspective. (That's confirmed by a post by their founder, Blake Scholl, in that discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329634. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11329634.)

bane 11y ago

This is basically how R&D works these days. The government (very frequently the military) assumes the risk of very high risk research and farms that work out to national labs, government research institutions, large research universities, then the most promising looking avenues are trickled down to industry, lower tier research universities, industrial research labs, etc. At some point, all the science will get done and the work will slide over to more engineering type work and we'll end up with a neat plane/gun/database/internet/drug/medical test/etc.