3 ms·
Why did they design it to fit in a carry on suitcase?
by jameshart 3y ago
Why did they design it to fit in a carry on suitcase?
- kube-system 3y agoBecause you have to be able to take them on the plane, obviously. /s But seriously I think 'fitting in a suitcase' wasn't the design goal, per se, but an approximate description of the design goals. The engine was designed to go in a missile.
- jameshart 3y agoThat’s interesting actually - and a lot of 1950s era ‘small enough to fit in a suitcase’ descriptions (computers, nuclear warheads, jet engines…) make more sense if you realize they are a euphemism for ‘small enough to fit in a missile’. Makes me wonder what ‘small enough to fit in a cigar box’ was a euphemism for.
- dsr_ 3y agoThat's a euphemism for cigar boxes; smuggled cigars get through borders with a little rake-off at each inspection. The fact that they are actual cigars on the top layers allows all the boxes to get past slightly bent but nonetheless patriotic guards.
- kube-system 3y agoEh, maybe. The suitcase itself is also, more simply, literally just something designed to be a reasonable amount of stuff that a human could carry. Many early portable PCs (e.g. Osborne) targeted a suitcase form factor just because it was a reasonable form factor for people to carry around. And the comparison is something colloquially convenient. "The device was the size of a suitcase" is just more illustrative than "the device was 50 liters in volume"
- jameshart 3y agoLike I’m going to take advice from someone called ‘kube-system’ about container sizes :D
- kube-system 3y agoI write all my comments FROM scratch