Quote:
Originally Posted by carbonBLUE
and feats like this were possible almost 50 years ago... that i also thought was pretty cool  |
Indeed! Getting somewhat off topic here, if you ever want to get completely blown away by feats that were possible 50, 60, 70 and more years ago, visit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in D.C. They have rows and rows of engines (some cut in half for display so you can see inside) that span several decades of military aircraft. You can see before your eyes how piston engines were taken to the very limit of what's possible in terms of power output (and almost beyond) and how they then quickly gave way to a new approach in the form of turbine engines. The last of the reciprocating engines were as bizarre as they were problem-ridden, and several prototypes were scrapped after huge and costly R&D effort when the advent of turbine engines revealed that the old model had become a lost cause.