BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
White Flame wrote:
Alienthe wrote:
In aircraft design you have one such example: SR-71. And it flies every bit as fast as you can imagine when you see it on the ground.
The thing leaks JP-7 all over the place until its skin gets hot enough at speed to expand and seal. I wouldn't quite call that elegant.
The environmentalist whackos would have a field day suing Lockheed and everyone around them over some jet fuel drips. 
I think the standard excuse that JP-7 was derived from K9-P, very environmental...
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Never mind that during the height of the cold war, especially when Brezhnev was running things in the old Soviet Union, the existence of technology like the Blackbird was definitely a game-changer. However, it's probably good that the Blackbird was retired when it was.
Why? It worked and worked well. I have a preference for using what does the job without going way over the top technologically. To take an example from that era: Skylab fell down. Two space shuttles were lost and other missions were scrapped due to malfunctions in systems with complexities that went too far too fast. At the same time Soviet Mir stayed in orbit way after its original expectancy.
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Whether a Blackbird ever flies again, or not, it will always be a monument to the visionary thinking of Kelly Johnson and his crew, just as the 6502 will always be a monument to the brainpower that was embodied in Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch.
Yes. Incidentally I hear a few SR-71 flights were done under the first Iraq war.
While we are on an enjoyable tangent, I'd like to add that culture goes beyond the designers, it also becomes part of the users. Like the marvellous designs of Woz.
As for SR-71 pilts, or sled drivers, they were the
King of Speed:
http://www.jumbojoke.com/the_king_of_speed.html(The preface states it is not sure if the story is true. However it is from the book by Brian Shul.)
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All wishful thinking, of course.