> Behalf Of Charlie Bell
> Interesting and sad, though, that with America's great history (the
one
> thing I really do admire the US for) of taking up technology and
developing
> inventions into recognised products, it took German V2s landing on
London
> for the US to see the merits of Goddard's work. :o(
>
> Charlie
It's not surprising, though, really. American success in that
endeavor is largely a product of our entreprenurial culture. That's
still quite unique - more than 90% of venture capital, for example, is
American. Inventors would go off, found companies, and become
astonishingly wealthy. Like...Bell, for example ;-) But there was no
perceptible market for rockets, and indeed, I do not believe there was
any significant civilian market for space-based technologies until the
1960s, right? Almost 40 years later. So that cultural attribute
didn't help in the development of rocket technology and Goddard
remained a rather eccentric hobbyist.
********************Gautam "Ulysses" Mukunda**********************
* Harvard College Class of '01 *He either fears his fate too much*
* www.fas.harvard.edu/~mukunda * Or his deserts are small, *
* [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Who dares not put it to the touch*
* "Freedom is not Free" * To win or lose it all. *
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