[AR] Re: Steel And rockets?

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2021 00:04:20 -0400 (EDT)

On Thu, 22 Jul 2021, Troy Prideaux wrote:

"if failure is not an option, success can get expensive" (Peter Stibrany).

Oh Henry, that's one ripper quote!

Yeah, Peter really nailed that one.

The big reason why Gossamer Condor won the Kremer Prize (for man-powered flight) with relative ease, after decades of failure by other groups, was that it was optimized, not for maximum performance, but for easy repair -- for rapid recovery from failure. A test mishap that would sideline a higher-tech effort for months was an overnight repair for G.C., so it made much more rapid progress, and was ready before it ran out of money.

Henry

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