On 03/06/2010 21:03, rabid_fan wrote:
On Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:18:10 +0100, ®i©ardo wrote:


Nonetheless, the Russians still did something that no-one thought they
were capable of doing - placing a satellite in orbit before anyone else
was capable of doing so.


If you insist on giving credit where credit is due, then
we all have to admit that virtually every aeronautical
and astronautical development that occurred since 1945
was the direct result of *German* engineering.

Both the US and the Soviet Union grabbed as many German
scientists and engineers as was possible. The post-war
space and aviation industries of both nations was shaped
largely by the work of the these German ex-patriots.

The American B-47 bomber, for example, which laid the
foundation for all subsequent aircraft in its class,
both military and commercial, was based entirely on German
experimental work on swept-wing airframes that the Boeing
Corp. had acquired.

If not for the Germans, we'd probably still be flying
the B-36.

Yes, you probably would be which, I seem to recall, used a development
of the British Whittle jet engine!

--
Moving things in still pictures