Re: Space Shuttle Folly of Our AgeThe space shuttle.

"Jeff Findley" <jeff.findley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>"Rick Nelson" <rainbow07@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:42b21e0c_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> It is a really dumb design - we could make blackbirds out of pure
>> titanium but couldn't spare any for our astronauts?
>
>Actually, it was other programs that were using up titanium at the time, not
>the SR-71 program.

<nods> The F-14 and F-15 for two, plus potentially any number of
aircraft on the drawing boards. The USN was still (at that time)
thinking about a titanium hulled submarine. (Though they were
waffling on whether it would be a small test boat (NR-1/Dolphin style)
or a full sized boat.) IIRC The two titanium spheres (supposed to be
the first of many) for Alvin also date from the early 70's.

Not to mention the supersonic civil transports that were 'just around
the corner'.

In the late 60's and early-to-mid 70's, titanium was the 'new black',
a wonder metal that would change the world in the same way that cheap
steel did in to mid 1800's and cheap aluminum did in the early
portions of the 1900's. Demand (both actual and projected) was
growing, but there was a fly in the ointment - Titanium came (in the
main) from countries that folks didn't care to deal with and buying it
supported regimes most folks would just as soon see go away. The
various military users in particular were leery of using a material
under the control of semi-hostile nations.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
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