Concord had an excellent safety record, only one of them ever crashed in 27 years of service. The problem was noise and that they too small to be economical as a commercial airliner. Read more
I’d like to second the amen for a level-headed review. Tyler Rogoway has become a breath of fresh, sensible air in these parts. I read the Economist’s take on military and foreign policy every week and his insight typically beats them in breadth, depth and even-handedness. Read more
Nice piece, Tyler. Excellent critical analysis of the half-baked “ideas” and “thoughts” emanating from this herd last night. Read more
In the end we got yet another crowded debate that was very light on facts and explanations but very high on hyperbole. Everyone wants the most powerful military in the world, and the fact of the matter is they will already have it when they step into office. Nobody even mentioned reforming the Pentagon or areas within… Read more
This is the same concurrency concept that’s given us the USS Gerald R Ford, the aircraft carrier that planes can neither land on to nor take off from, too. Gotta love it.
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About 10 years and 4 jobs ago, I was on the JSF program. The director of our department was notorious for two things: Read more
Without expanding on flexibility we wouldn’t advance in technology. Who thought cars were a good idea when they first came out, they were flimsy cruddy pieces of tech that I think only went 7-10MPH consider a house galloping can go 25 – 30 mph and ya, why would you want a car when you could just use a horse. Imagine… Read more
You don’t seem to understand who DARPA is. The things they invent benefit the military first, civilians decades later. Read more
Actually, anybody who would use these wants them. A guy that rents an R22 on the weekends is not going to be landing on a ship or rough terrain. A rescue helicopter or navy helicopter is going to be using these all the time. Read more
On the other hand, you’d see these on ever military transport helicopter, and any civilian rescue choppers, as it would be of ultimate benefit to those sorts of organizations. Yeah, I don’t see the average civilian pilot needing a helicopter fitted with these, but for everyone else they’d be invaluable. Read more
You could not have your landing gear attached to the bottom of the legs? High end choppers use retractable landing gear already. This seems to just add a stability system to that. Read more