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Jet engines are still best designed by a roomful of PhD's. And those cost lots of money. Possibly the wrong example for your argument :) Jet engines can now b
by richardw 12y ago
Jet engines are still best designed by a roomful of PhD's. And those cost lots of money.
Possibly the wrong example for your argument :) Jet engines can now be designed by a team at SpaceX rather than at NASA, and the team can 3D-print them. That seems like reduced-cost innovation compared to decades past.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/02/elon-musk-makes-3-d-printing-history.aspx http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/06/02/elon-musk-m...
(PS - I definitely don't disagree with your general point, but it might be becoming harder to know which areas need patents and which don't.)
- chc 12y agoI'm not quite sure what difference you're pointing out. Why does is matter if the PhDs are at SpaceX or NASA?
- richardw 12y agoYes, I'm aware they aren't delegating the rocket design to the marketers. Smaller team, faster to market, cheaper. The discussion is around accelerating innovation and SpaceX perfectly demonstrates this, despite "rocket engines" being the earlier example given for how it's not true.
- rayiner 12y agoSpaceX is very neat, but I'm not sure they represent a change in the pace of design. Scaled Composites has been operating with a lean team for decades now. And arguably, Scaled Composites has been more willing to tread unproven ground with novel technology. SpaceX has been sticking more to proven concepts, which mitigates one of the big risks of this sort of R&D.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]