On 06/01/2009, at 1:52 PM, Doug Pensinger wrote: > > On an SF list you forget Aerospace?
Yes! The world's first supersonic jetliner was American! The world's largest passenger jet is American! The world's largest military transport is... American!!! No, wait. ;-) Admittedly, the most successful aircraft company in history is American (Boeing) and possibly the second (arguably Lockheed), and the longest serving planes are American (DC-3 and Hercules...), and the world's coolest looking interceptor was American (YF-23), and the world's most expensive bomber, and the Moon landings, and the Mars Rovers and so on. But plenty of the pioneering stuff in aerospace (the jet engine, the geostationary satellite, the first satellite, the first robot probe on the Moon) were done elsewhere. My attitude is not "America sucks", it's "hey hang on, the whole world has done some great stuff and let's give credit where it's due"). It irritates me just as much when the Brits say "we totally cracked the Enigma code, dude", 'cause the three-wheel Enigma was cracked by a Pole, who came up with the first calculating machines (the "bombes"), and this work was smuggled out of Poland in the diplomatic bag. This doesn't diminish in any way from Turing et al, who went on to crack the 4 and 5 wheel machines, and the Post Office engineer who built Colossus, and so on. We're ALL standing on the shoulders of giants. Just cause the States is the biggest guy in the room right now doesn't make him the *only* guy in the room. Charlie. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
