Politics

[Rare White Ape]

That was a cold war era jet. Back then money was no object for programs like that. But who says that they're not still doing that? They have to have something going on in the deepest bowels of aerospace HQ.

Now that the Russians are allies and even lend a helping hand in elections in the USA, you just need a new enemy to be the focus of technological warfare development.

But it's probably a bad idea to romanticise wild and awe-inspiring vehicles like the SR-71, given their ultimate aim, which was to help facilitate the killing of humans somewhere else. But I do wish that sort of energy was still present in the space program. NASA feels hamstrung by risk aversion, and SpaceX is... meh. Plus Elon Musk is a total dick-brain.

Yes, yes, Artemis is happening, the next five years will be exciting, but it is happening too slowly. The last Shuttle's wheels stopped rolling ten years ago this July.

[Tom Servo]

Perseverance does feel like an extension of that kind of thing, and while I agree that romanticizing military hardware isn't great, at least the SR-71 was just recon. Point heard, though.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yes, SR71 were the days... I feel that I missed the golden years of aerospace industry...

Anyway, we need bunch of different smaller companies in order to have innovations. Merging them together to form giant behemoth really helped nobody.

For my current employer, I think we also have a software problem. 737max, crew capsule failed to reach ISS, even the SLS rocket aborted hot fire test early... all software related issue.

Anyway, if it weren’t for that dick brain of Elon musk, I’m sure space would be even more boring and we’d still be relying on Russians to get our astronauts to space.

This world needs more dick brains.

The missions to Mars are cool too of course. Better that than landing and invading another nation on earth.

[neanderthal]

https://twitter.com/PalmerReport/sta...593003012?s=19

[Crazed_Insanity]

Dems have lots of pragmatic excuses.

Look, when it was the rich wall st type in crisis, Obama gave them their stimulus bill around mid February already. When it comes to saving Main Street, urgency just isn’t there.

Both times republicans fucked it up big time to give dems control. Will dems really do well to maintain power? At current trajectory, probably not. Trump just might come back 2024. Somebody better send him to prison before 2024...

[Crazed_Insanity]

To be stuck because dems cannot agree on whether to give workers living wage is really a damn shame. Seriously, why do we need you then? Why not just let republicans in charge? At least the rich and the stock market will be happier?

If some of the dems are seriously concerned for some businesses inability to afford to pay a living wage, then perhaps a small amount of taxable UBI should be implemented to fill in the gap? So essentially living wages could be made possible by profitable giant companies and those workers who don’t really need this UBI to stay out of poverty levels will simple eventually pay it back during tax season....

Anyway, American workers should be making living wages one way or another.

Perhaps min wage debate just shouldn’t be part of the stimulus bill holding emergency funding up...

[FaultyMario]

It really does make you miss the skunkworks days, when they made highly-specialized bonkers shit like the SR-71. I doubt it was a good idea financially and likely a bad idea overall, but at least you end up with a finished product that is awe-inspiring in some way.

From what the article said, the main problem of the "low-cost F16 replacement project" was that lobbyist and politicians kept pushing for a multi-role aircraft, instead of the "small, fast, low-service" specialized item it was at the start of development.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Air Force wanted their f-16 replacement. Navy wanted their plane, needs to beef it up for carrier landing so can't be light weight anymore. Marine wanted their plane, needs vertical take off landing capability additional engine makes it even heavier...

They should've each gotten their own special planes, but instead, Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) was born.

SR-71 was created without lobbyists and politicians' influences.

Old way of doing thing was... we need to spy on the Russians or we need to go to the moon. Here's the money, get it done.
Today... There's no more "we". Congress and Pentagon may have different interests. Needs are brought up and we pretend to debate about it, decisions were made based on how it will enrich everyone involved.

To be somewhat fair, the world has changed. Without USSR, the evil empire, we really don't need these expensive weapon systems anymore. Unless CCP wish to step up and pickup where USSR left off?

The future battle will probably be in space, cyber space... and with drones. As cool as he is, Top Gun Maverick will be retired eventually...

[George]

As cool as he is, Top Gun Maverick will be retired eventually...

A few will continue, despite the odds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill...was a British Army officer who fought in the Second World War with a longbow, bagpipes, and a Scottish broadsword.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Me...0Crow%20Nation.

Joseph Medicine Crow... [was] a Native American writer, historian and war chief of the Crow Nation. [Among similar deeds, he] led a successful war party and stole fifty horses owned by the Nazi SS from a German camp, singing a traditional Crow honor song as he rode off

[Crazed_Insanity]

That’s interesting. Should make a very interesting movie...

I guess it’s kinda like Indiana Jones?