A Reflection

/ Dragons Claw

So this is a bit of an odd post for me I came across this Video the other day

And it made me kinda sad the SR71 still holds the records for highest flight and fastest manned plane some of the facts about this plane are phenomenal. The record is Mach 3.2 but one pilot claims to have hit Mach 3.5 whilst evading SAM missiles over Libya speaking of which it was fired upon over 4000 times by missiles but never once hit if fired upon it would just accelerate and the missiles couldn’t keep up flying at 80000 ft at over 2000 mph its pilot could lock onto a moving car and read the number plates the sensor suite was so sensitive that siting on the ground in broad daylight it could detect the light from the nearest 62 stars at full chat it could get from New York to London in under 1 hour 55 minutes. The plane required so much Titanium in its construction that the CIA had to create hundreds of false companies around the world so they could buy enough the main source of Titanium being the USSR even then over 80% of the Titanium supplied was rejected by Lockheed as not being of suitable quality.

So why does this make me sad this plane was designed in the 1950’s first flew in 1962 and retired from service in 1998 where the replacement where’s the forward progress why are we no longer pushing the boundaries of the possible.

This kinda got me thinking it’s not just the SR71 Concorde no longer flies the Space Shuttle is grounded and become a museum piece No body is actively trying for a manned mission to Mars. Sure electronically see there are advancements but it seems like as a species were losing the adventurous spirit that pushed boundaries and that makes me Sad

16 thoughts on “A Reflection”

  1. I used to have a toy of the Blackbird, thought it was awesome when I was six.

    Truly a bittersweet post. Sadly humanity does feel like it’s losing its way, we hear about new things but it’s only a brief snippet rather than a main focus. Where did all the awe and wonder for our world, and by extension, the universe go? It feels like that after 2005 or thereabouts humanity suddenly became inwardly obsessive and hyper judgmental. We seem to care more about the latest gossip rather than what’s new in science and tech. By tech I don’t mean the latest in iShittyuserinterface or such but rather new solar powered stuff, faster space ships, etc.

    Maybe it’s because it’s all about the money now, and noone does things unless it’s marketable? Ha, or maybe it’s a cynic’s current worldview. Or it could be the suburban life draining one’s soul, who knows. Anyway, I really do wish science and technology would become more of a spotlight topic than the current anti-intellectualism vibe. On a positive note, malarial vaccines are getting there, FTL may be a thing when I’m old, and solar power is nearly completely viable so I suppose life post 2010 ain’t all that bad.

    Back to the concorde- it had one accident caused by a piece of shrapnel from another plane and they don’t fly anymore 😦 With today’s current technology, couldn’t we re-investigate that line of supersonic passenger craft?

    Ha, love thought-provoking stuff.

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    • Thanks for the long reply I hadn’t heard that about solar they’ve managed to get enough amps per square metre not have cover hundred of square miles to generate enough power?

      The real shame on Concorde was that Richard Branson offered to buy the Fleet and British Airways refused I think they should have been made too Concorde was developed with British and French Tax payers money and was a source of intense national pride.

      Sir Ranulph Fiennes
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranulph_Fiennes
      recently announced that’s there nothing left to explore and our modern obsession with safety makes it feel like no one is pushing the boundaries anymore

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      • Yeah, safety things seem to be quite, er, prevalent these days. Gotta spell it out for people rather than let the parents have to teach kiddies not to stick knives in toasters. Helicopter parenting, the Participation Award and the “everyone is special and a winner” mentality is kinda something. Oh and the threat of being sued/liable for other people’s stupidity is always a turnoff. *shrugs* Is why I’ll side with Horus 😛

        Latest in solar panels look a bit like satellite dishes and have an efficiency is ~34% up from about ~17% which is the current market efficiency. We can print low efficiency panels though, so maybe we’ll see them implemented onto car roofs sometime before the decade is out.

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  2. Yeah that’s a sad one. Saddest plane that never was? Avro Arrow. USA: Geez that thing is too good. Kill it before it goes into production. OUR PM: Okay buddy. Morons -_-

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  3. I posted a link to a great article that attempts to explains why Americans( in particular ) have lost the passion and drive for space exploration . As far as we as a species losing our adventurous spirit, I don’t know blame the Internet . No, honestly I don’t know. Americans seem to have become complacent , we have lost our adventurous spirit but there has been truly magically leaps in technology . Nano tech, bionic limb replacements for our wounded warriors and the survivors of the Marathon bombings…aggressive treatments for cancer. But these are all funded by venture capitalists so I guess true adventure for simply the thrill of the unknown is a rare thing these days.

    http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/day-america-stopped-caring-space-exploration.html

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    • Thanks for that link very interesting article yeah I can see how challenger and columbia would have taken the wind out of the sales of the American desire for space travel. I agnowledge that there have been huge advances in medicine but that’s more about making life more comfortable rather than adventure it seems we left the caves headed for the horizon crossed seas climbed mountains learnt to fly and then pushed to go further faster higher then all.of a sudden stopped no one is encouraged to take risks anymore and I think maybe were slowly killing our inate adventurous spirit through early indoctrination

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  5. OhMyGawd this always makes me think of that movie with Clint Eastwood where he goes into Russia to steal a fancy prototype plane that looked like a smaller version of this…and of course I can’t remember the name of the movie cuz it’s 3:30am and I’m tired and moderately Chinese-eyed right naow.
    😛

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  6. Yer right about the West slipping a lil’ in the military tech as the budgets have been slashed by a series of ‘progressive’ presidents here in the US.
    Our navies are also dropping ships as they get decommissioned and we’re not building new ones.
    We still lead in submarines, but that’s about it. Meanwhile, Russia is getting up to it’s old tricks…but we should prolly be happy that China is pretty much surrounded on all sides by enemies. Heh.

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    • Damn.
      Von’s got me stuck on that werd- ‘progressive.’
      😛
      Blah.
      Anyways…off to bed.
      G’night, DC.
      🙂

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    • I think things will get really scary when Russia and China start to bump heads over something the history between those two is horrific and they share the largest border in the world

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    • I’m fine mate just be a bit devoid of inspiration and motivation recently got like 4 drafts in the works two funny bits that just weren’t funny and 2 bits that just rambled on with no point for ll try again soon

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      • Is all good DC. Just wanted to make sure you were traveling alright. I know you said you had the dodgy work hours a while back . A post doesn’t have to have a point of be funny, it just has to be your thoughts on things so something. Hope things are well your side of the big blue wet thing 🙂

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