3 ms·
Well, it's a great plane. Also an unfortunate, terrible plane - judging by some important characteristics. It's a pity that this is still the state of the art,
by avmich 6y ago
Well, it's a great plane. Also an unfortunate, terrible plane - judging by some important characteristics. It's a pity that this is still the state of the art, with those shortcomings still there. Sometimes the progress is surprisingly hard to get.
- NegativeLatency 6y agoHard to fight physics. Especially when you have spy satellites that can digitally send you data, why design a new one.
- garmaine 6y agoMaterials science has improved tremendously since the 50’s. Surely a carbon fiber structure would get better performance and/or a larger safety envelope?
- VBprogrammer 6y agoI reckon Scaled Composites could kick out a new aircraft for less than the cost of running these for a few more years. Probably one of the only companies with the knowledge to do so.
- xarope 6y agoThey needed a tool, they created the tool which did what they wanted, but at high cost in terms of highly skilled and experienced manpower. Don't we do this all the time in IT thought? Big issues in SW, which we plug with people's knowledge, time and experience? Isn't that what they were/are doing here? I only have the utmost respect for these pioneers, literally taking their lives in their own hands...
- cameldrv 6y agoWe don't know if this is state of the art. The U-2 is still fine for surveillance over uncontested territory. For flights over denied territory, nine years ago, Iran captured an RQ-170. There may be other aircraft that have not been captured. I'm sure we'll find out in good time.
- dividedbyzero 6y agoI wonder how many such programs never get revealed at all even after completion. I also wonder how many of those would be spectacular in one way or another.