Wirt - that was a fascinating article on the rocket engines and the
different approach Russia & we go to design. I remember years ago when
Viktor Belenko defected to Japan in his Mig 25 - the Russians of course were
furious demanding the immediate return of the plane. It did come back, in
crates. But what surprised us was the relative simple technology that had
such great performance. The avionics were vacuum tube, fer cryin' out loud.

You could compare this difference to almost anything manufactured - the M16
vs AK 47 - Vietnam vets know that the AK could take the worst abuse and
still fire while the M16 like a nice sports car demanded a higher level of
maintenance.

I just got back from Russia - first time I was there - and it was an eye
opener. If any of you are curious about my impressions - particularly after
serving in a missile bunker in the Army 30 years ago - I wrote an article
for my car club - check www.mbca.org/sacramento - go to the menu and look at
the Capital Star page 2.

All of my stereotypes about Russia were broken.

We took a tour outside Moscow to see a monastery (this trip which went on
the Volga between Moscow & St Petersburg - could be billed as the church
tour - we saw more churches than I'd care to count). - But on the outskirts
of Moscow we passed a huge industrial complex with a V2 rocket in the
front - where that engine most likely was designed.

Anyway in the coming weeks I'll have my best 100 Russia pics up on the web -
will let you all know.

The whole thing reminds me of the old joke that was floating around - about
our spending 100s of millions to design a pen that would write in zero
gravity while the Russians used a pencil.

Bill

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *