Shenyang FC-31 / J-31 Fighter Demonstrator
- Thread starter RedSky
- Start date
- Status
drunkmunky
Junior Member
China is still communist at heart is it not?
If one falls, another shall replace him.
If one falls, another shall replace him.
That statement is flawed, personal cults and individual brilliance is much more common in communist countries.
But the root of the issue is, genius are irreplaceable.
Germany cannot replace Wernher von Braun,
The USA cannot replace Wernher von Braun,
the USSR cannot replace Sergei Pavlovich Korolev,
the PRC cannot replace Qian Xuesen
The fact is, Von Braun, Korolyov and Qian probably added more to the practical knowledge and understanding of rocketry than all the engineers and scientist combined thereafter.
But ofcourse true genius are rare and inbetween.
I agree with the above statement to an extend, it's true a few decades ago but with today's project management techniques the loss of a single person should not completely derail a major project. Back in the days not so much, the loss of Guo Yonghuai really put China's nuclear weapons program in jeopardy.
Today's management techniques might well be able to derail major projects. The choices made developing the Space Shuttle, i.e. solid fuel boosters, throw away liquid fuel tank, made the cost of launching a payload into low earth orbit higher than would have been achieved by throw away rockets, let alone the possibility of using partly reusable liquid fueled rockets, while the purpose had been to make it cheaper. The choices that let to the loss of two of the Shuttles with the loss of their crews were also based on the use of modern management techniques.
Just one example.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Now Delft, or should I say old mother hubbard, the space shuttle was and is a monumental and unequivicable success, and the real mystery is how they did all that with such an outstanding safety record, looking at the failure rate of other projects in all Nations. Your own engineering sense is no doubt outstanding, and inspite of your carping I really do love you as a brother, I'm sure we could be like Eng/Mig29, but I agree completely that modern management or mismanagement leads to casualties and it is a crying shame. So even though we had significant and heartbreaking loses, we also had a very succusfull run in a very cruel and unforgiving environment, I hate the retirement of the shuttle and believe that will be looked on a sorry decision in the future. AFB
OT
I remember the beginning of the project. The purpose was to reduce the cost per lb of satellites taken to low earth orbit to one tenth of that possible with throw away rockets. In addition it should be possible to capture old satellites and bring them back to refurbish them and launch again.
Shuttle launches should need so little preparation that every Shuttle was to be launched some five to ten times per year. This of course would justify the production cost of each Shuttle. With the actual refurbishment time being some ten times what was estimated and the launch rate a tenth the cost of producing and refurbishing a Shuttle launch was much more expensive than the building and launch of a throw away rocket with the same cargo capability.
And refurbishment of recaptured old satellites also remained too expensive.
So the Shuttle didn't approach the original design targets.
Last edited:
AeroEngineer
Junior Member
- Status