Re: big ships (was Re: Cos-B: 30 Years On...)



Monte Davis wrote:

Social and cultural parts were missing -- I'd say a tradition of
patronage a la Leonardo and his dukes (the Chinese elite more readily
supported poet-mandarins and artisans than, uh, tinkerers), and/or a
matrix to offer reward$ for making many copie$ of ingenious devices.


Speaking of that, it was The History Channel IIRC that recently ran a show in which they built full-sized replicas of some of Leonardo's inventions and tried them out. The tank was problematical, but that tent shaped parachute actually worked as designed, and carried a skydiver safely to earth!

Pat
.