How We Might Have Scramjets Sooner than Expected

loralai writes "Recent breakthroughs in scramjet engines could mean two-hour flights from New York to Tokyo. This technology, decades in the making, could redefine our understanding of air travel and military encounters. 'To put things in context, the world's fastest jet, the Air Force's SR-71 Blackbird spy plane, set a speed record of Mach 3.3 in 1990 when it flew from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., in just over an hour. That's about the limit for jet engines; the fastest fighter planes barely crack Mach 1.6. Scramjets, on the other hand, can theoretically fly as fast as Mach 15--nearly 10,000 mph.'"

Comments

Just too late

[Colin Smith]

As we trip over the peak of oil production...

Vote for Hillary

[Anonymous Coward]

And the chinese will be given the technology too!

Re:SR-71 Blackbird

[DaedalusHKX]

Two words: Corporate Welfare.

A little bit more on that:
--They will either give out research grants until a workable prototype proves viable.
--They will give out military contracts, bid or no bid.

The amusing thing is, and what no "average citizen of the world", American, British or otherwise, seems to get through their thick skulls, is that generally, the only low key and sure fire public approved way for the government to keep inflating the currency at astronomical rates, without talking about it, is to go adventuring abroad, or spend massively on military and social programs at home.

Therein lies the actual problem

[DaedalusHKX]

Everyone says "oh yeah, only the rulers are to blame."

Seriously, I disagree, and I'm sure I'll be in the minority, because it seems insight into these things always gets lost when the going is good, all the way up until shit hits the fan, then all the fools come back asking "why didn't anyone warn us?! Why did those who made it through okay not warn us, those greedy bastards!"

Mao Tse Dun was capable of his butchery not because he single handedly carried out the "cultural revolution" in China, but because plenty of Chinese "folks" were "just doing their jobs."

In the USSR, during Lenin's time and all the way through Stalin and up to Nikita Hruschev, the butcheries, the pogroms, and the gulag work was carried out by Russians, many of them actually JEWS (yes, butchering their own "brethren") and yet, everyone blamed the rulers, not those "folks" who by "just doing their jobs", were the real murderers and enablers.

In Fascist Italy, everyone blames Mussolini the dictator, but nobody noticed that it was his BlackShirts that carried out the orders, not Mussolini himself. He would have had a hard time doing all that he did without willing murderers , ahem, I mean "folks" there to "just do their jobs."

How about the long forgotten Japanese butchery in China and Eastern Asia during World War II? Was it Emperor Hirohito's fault? Hell the Emperor was one of the few voices for peace in the whole cabinet. Was the cabinet to blame? How about all those willing Japanese "folks" who eagerly threw their lives into the fray so they could "just do their jobs."

We can always make a quick stop in Nazi Germany. Was it Hitler, or Himmler, or even Goering or Goebbels that were to blame? Was it the bankers? No, these men took advantage of human willingness to "be folks" "just doing their jobs." It was the "ostrich trait" that "ordinary folks" apply when "just doing their jobs", especially jobs that involve violating the very boundaries that define other men and women, traits like dignity, respect, honor, honesty, integrity.

Unquestioning obedience, stupidity, docility or servility does not make you forgiven for those sins you commit while violating the rights of others. If you treat innocents and honest men like slaves, if you violate their dignity, when the time comes to pay the piper, the only one you have to blame is yourself, and the only one you'll have to answer to is yourself, not some holy mystic God, or some fiery sword wielding angels or any such stuff. Your most difficult judge will be yourself. Granted the vast majority don't care until years later when they can't sleep after "just doing their jobs", but there is always that first one to say "no thanks, I'll find another job."

I like one thing. If "freedom" were a server of any type, there is no shortage of unclaimed accounts on the whole "freedom" server. Practically so few want to claim accounts, that it is a lag free, crash proof server. I should probably be happy and stop asking others to join up. The other players might get upset... and frankly, I'm soon going to stop posting on here because I have, weeks ago, learned what i needed to know, but I keep hoping I might find a few others. Heh, that ancient Pandora's Curse, the worst of all the plagues she unleashed from that box... Hope, futile, pointless, Hope.

Re:Therein lies the actual problem

[DaedalusHKX]

No, when you tell me to shut up, what you're doing is saying that you'd rather wait until you get strafed.

You're also a victim worshipper... I'm watching to see if anyone who ISN'T a victim worshipper will be around. I've got RELATIVES, not "friends" who were murdered through government aggression. And the patterns are cyclical. They're occurring in the West now, because they've gotten to their logical conclusion in the East.

Some of my great grandparents were killed by invading Russians and the following collectivization... in America, the "allies" call them "heroes" or "allied Russian forces fighting for freedom", even though where my grandparents grew up, the Nazi soldiers were remembered for being gentlemen and even paying rent to stay in their town and be fed by the locals, while the Russian "saviors" were the ones who indulged in rapes and butchery and burned whatever they couldn't steal.

History... has always been written by the victor... in America, as in everywhere else. If you ever get to be a "refugee" it means you didn't see it coming. And you won't, you're too busy telling those who do, to shut up.

MOD PARENT WAY UP

[jdjbuffalo]

Very insightful post. And despite the fact that it is Offtopic, it should still be modded Insightful.

We often times forget that it's the people under the leaders that give them their power. If people were more willing to stand up to injustices when confronted with them there would have been a lot less evil in this world. We likely wouldn't have had Concentration Camps in Germany or Gulags in the USSR or torture by the CIA.

While it can often be commendable for people to follow their leaders to the ends of the Earth, it often times leads to many injustices as they will not ask themselves "Is this right? Can I live with myself if I do this?"

Thank you again for your great post DaedalusHKX.

Its called Baby steps...

[DaedalusHKX]

In a country where more than half the populace is armed, legally or illegally, and where military and even sanctioned paramilitary (cops, tsa, etc) forces are FAR into the minority, one does not want to lose the golden goose (which is America). So to keep fleecing it until the last possible moment, without waking up the Giant, Jack will have to continue baby stepping things, until he's stolen every possible golden egg. Then he can lead the giant to his doom when he wakes up angry and upset that his gold is being stolen.

It takes baby steps to get to a goal when the sleeping Giant is just starting to grumble in his sleep. If Jack stays downwind and remains stealthy, by the time the Giant wakes up, the only thing LEFT for him to do is fall off the beanstalk.

FLAMEBAIT???

[gstoddart]

Flamebait?? Good lord, are the mods on crack today? I was neither flaming him, nor demeaning him, nor inviting a flame war.

Do moderators even know what the moderation of flamebait even means any more?

Anyway, apologies to the OP if it was construed as flamage. It wasn't.

Cheers