Originally posted by mwm1331
Sminkey thats what I love about you europeans, always msing the point by a mile.
- well if I may mwm1331 I'd say that's what you have just done.
Who cares who came up with it first? Who cares who did the basic resaearch? We are actually building one, is europe?
- My point was the flat denial that anyone else could have come up with the idea(s) or actually made 'xyz' or used it.
Its a lot like when america, germany, and the U.K. were all trying to be the first to break the sound barrier.
Germany had the idea first.
The the U.K. tried
America entered the race next to last
The USSR entered the race last.
The U.K. had all the design elements, and in fact could have been the first.
- This is true.
But your country lacked the political will to keep both supersonic projects going and ironically the one you guys canceled, we now know would have been the best choice to continue.
- No, this is not IMO why the project was cancelled.
You have to understand the times. The then UK gov did not want to be risking lives under orders from them. Just post WW2 there had been enough lives lost in that manner by then and they could see no reason (never mind need) for anymore losses particularly as the program at that point had claimed prominent lives. It may seem strange to us but there you are. They didn't see the justification in something they thought so dangerous. That IMO is as reasonable explaination as any for what happened.
America got you guys to give us your research and then we used it to beat you to the punch. Immoral? Maybe.
- I disagree. I don't think it's immoral at all.
What I do find objectionable is any denial that others were there too, whether or not they actually got noted as the first. (and as the example of Edison shows, clearly the popularly recorded 'history' need not actually be the correct one.)
But the first man to fly a supersonic plane was Chuck Yeager, not some pasty faced stiff upper lipper.
In the end it doesn't matter who thinks of it first, or who designs it first, all that matters is who builds it first and who uses it first.
- Well, ok, on a superficial level I'd say this is probably so. But I don't think it contradicts what I'm saying here either.
Are we interested in the whole story or just the 'pop' version?
I prefer the most complete and accurate histories myself.
