Doing a little back-of-the-envelope math here, it looks like I have spent just shy of half of my entire life writing about avgas. And not just avgas, but the unleaded replacement for it that would ultimately banish tetraethyl lead to the same place we sent dioxin, radium paint, asbestos and the Gilbert Atomic Laboratory Kit for kids that actually contained bits of uranium.
Thanks Paul - how times have changed - the Empire State Building was built in 13 months - and now Congress can’t make a decision in less time than that to preserve our Constitution, our Liberty and our way of life. How do we elect these Morons?
Great video & story!!
What I did not know was that after the engine went through the first test cell run, it was then dissembled, inspected, & run again!
“ the Empire State Building was built in 13 months – and now Congress can’t make a decision in less time than that to preserve our Constitution, our Liberty and our way of life.”
A more efficient Congress would more quickly erode our Constitution, our Liberty and our way of life.
An efficient government does not preserve, it takes away.
Imagine what type of flying you’d be reduced to if the FARs/CFRs could be more quickly and efficiently changed.
'There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and it's growing. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'
Issac Asimov
We elected them.
The brilliant story about a real strength of the greatest democracy!
It should be noticed by those from former stalin/gulag country who try to tease and confront Civilized World today.
The whole point is, “WE ELECT THEM”.
Two things to that. First, term limits as the office of president has, ALWAYS elect ew blood if some is running. If not, do not vote for that office.
The fact is, and without regard to politics, we have just done a major, and continuing, effort every bit as challenging as building those engines, and that is the invention and development of vaccines for a pandemic in less than a year. Typically, that kind of accomplishment takes literally years, and the scientists who have developed the SARS-Covid 19 vaccines have done so in about a year, a monumental achievement. Different, to be sure, from building engines and bombers and tanks, but no less challenging and noteworthy for no less serious a war.
My Dad was the ALCOA Sales Engineer in LA working with North American and Northrop on use of aluminum and magnesium alloys in aircraft from 1939 through 1948. He helped develop TIG welding for magnesium alloys, and then was product manager for the Alcoa Precision Castings foundry in Vernon. He helped Lockheed engineers re-design and rapidly prototype new air inlet castings for the Constellation when Hughes threatened to cancel the TWA orders due to speed and range disadvantages relative to the DC-7. The new cast inlets resulted in 50 mph speed increase, saved Lockheed and allowed Super G Constellations to compete on cross-country flights through the 1950’s…
Excuse me, but SARS-1 was in 2002/2003, and our CDC refused to issue grants to create a vaccine back then. Before you say, “but that didn’t affect us”, note that it wiped out hospital staff just across the border in Toronto.
Between then and now was MERS, another corona virus.
So the fact we needed a crash program in 2020 is no thanks to the CDC, who had two decades to get their act together.
A while ago I stumbled across a similar video on YouTube about the Rolls-Royce Company making Merlin engines (“Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine”) in England. One thing that was nice about that movie is it was made in the midst of full production, unlike the Dodge factory that is the subject of this comment thread.