Why the seeming lack of progess in aviation technology compared to...

[Lundgren]

people need to learn to be satisfied with what they have and not always want something newer or better, then we can have peace and harmony.

Being camel nosed is something no one should ever be expected to endure, get a nose job. Get with the times.



Anyhow computers havent made drastic changes since the seventies. There the same size and take roughly the same amount of power. There designs are more detailed but there not making any leaps. If you wanna look at airplane design their making the same leaps, its just the more percise design of a plane with at best make it 50 percent more efficient where computers have become leaps and bonds more efficient with the same tech.

[MB_722]

have a look at this, got this from another forum

So you want to buy an RJ?" and it has how much various parts cost. I.e., don't break shit cause it's expensive you nitwits!  :whip:

Here's a few:
Engine: $3.3 million
Radome (nose cone): $44,000
Fan Blade (from the engine): $13,730
Static Wick (little pointy thing on the end of the wing): $394
Elevator (horizontal moveable surface on the tail): $378,000
Rudder (vertical moveable surface of the tail): $188,000
Tire Rim: $7,271 (!)
Leading Edge (front of the wing): $68,800
Nose Gear (of the landing gear): $449,000
Flap (back part of the wing that moves during take-off and landing): $312,000
Winglet: $39,000
Pilot: Priceless! :mrgreen:
CRJ200 aircraft: $18.8 mil

to answer your question ... it's bloody expensive

[Rami]

Airports. The runways.

[no one]

 i think it has a lot to do with cost.

im sure there the technology exists to get planes in the air that are bigger and could get you where you want to go faster, but how many people could afford the ticket?

[Benny B]

Could this be moved to the "Nobody Gives A Shit Board?"

I could have sworn I saw it down there somewhere...

[tu_holmes]

The concorde was a huge advancement... The problem was that no one bothered to continue to advance beyond it.

Can you get across the Atlantic in 4 hours? Sure.

But the cost to do so... in fuel and what not is not worthwhile... most people will take the 7-8 hours and pay more than 1/2 the cost.

Unless supersonic flight becomes a "requirement", you will not see much of a change.

[Deicide]

If you take a general view on advancement in the past few decades you'll realize that there hasn't been any groundbreaking technological progress.
The big problem is that the easy physics and math are things of the past. Nowadays you deal with very nasty equations to describe recently discovered phenomena in physics.

While Galileo and Newton played around with simple multiplications today's physicist can only comprehend certain mathematical expressions with the help of a computer. Furthermore, Technical progress correlates heavily to the progress in physics. You can't invent something groundbreaking without new knowledge in either chemistry or physics (those two subjects cover basically the same knowledge from a different angle). But even if you come out with new physical laws, it's hard to apply them in reality. Quantum Mechanics was invented 100 years ago, yet we still don't see too many QM applications.

String theory is on the horizon and it's the one theory that is supposed to bring QM and general relativity together. They're making tests right now in the large hadron collider to gain further understanding of "mater" and "energy", so that they can either validate string theory or reject it. But if it's correct, it will be groundbreaking for the theoretical aspect of physics. But till we see any products that are directly inspired and motivated by string theory, we'll have to wait many years.

The computer industry is not as innovative as one might think. They will face some problems. Their strategy for the past decades was to make chips and semiconductors in general, smaller and smaller. This has been going on since the invention of transistors, which replaced the electric tubes. Of course they'll reach a point where they can't make these things any smaller, so they'll have to find something new.

Mechanical industry faces other problems. They could probably build better and faster planes with lighter materials and more advanced motors, but their progress is limited by economy and resources. Imagine if there were no middle ages. If this world didn't stop scientific development for 1000 years and if archimedes had been directly followed by the likes of Galileo and Newton instead of the Pope...

Basically, so advanced, it's all not applicable...yet.