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RE: RIP thread
December 8, 2020 at 12:41 pm
(December 8, 2020 at 11:31 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: (December 8, 2020 at 12:44 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Chuck Yeager, he was the first pilot that flew at the speed of sound.
Chuck Yeager was the first pilot who intentional flew past the speed of sound in level flight and lived to tell about it.
A few pilots likely flew at or just above speed of sound unintentionally during dives in WWII, and lived to tell about it. a few more pilots intended to fly past speed of sound in dives and in level flight after WWII, but before Yeager, and a few may have succeeded, but didn’t live to tell.
(December 8, 2020 at 6:07 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: If it weren't for the stupid rule about having to be a college graduated to qualify for the astronaut programme, Yeager could very well have been the first American in space. Eisenhower insisted on test pilots for Mercury - who the fuck fit that bill better than Yeager?
Boru
The US produced well over a million military pilots during WWII, plenty of them became test pilots afterwards. Except for publicity purposes because he is the pilot who happen to be there when the X-1 broke the sound barrier, how does Yeager fit the bill particularly well amongst that large pool?
But against his being there when the sound barrier was broken must be set the fact that he was only there because he broke regulations and hid a debilitating previous rib injury to be there. This potentially endangered both the effort and the valuable experimental aircraft.
In the race to not be left too far behind the USSR, would the US risk losing more ground by having a national hero die and his spacecraft lost because he broke a few more ribs the night before launch and decided to hide it so as to not lose his spot should fame come?
If Yeager has been disqualified from Mercury because he was a rule breaking hot-dog, I wouldn't have an issue. But he met all of the requirements for the programme except for having a college degree.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: RIP thread
December 8, 2020 at 12:46 pm
The astronaut would possibly have had to do their own math for re-entry. This meant they had to have math skills at a high level.
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RE: RIP thread
December 11, 2020 at 1:12 pm
Kim Ki-duk - Korean film director dies of COVID-19. I remember watching some of his movies, like 'Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring,' which was pretty good.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: RIP thread
December 11, 2020 at 2:09 pm
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2020 at 2:11 pm by BrianSoddingBoru4.)
Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister, dead of COVID at 62.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
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RE: RIP thread
December 12, 2020 at 6:11 pm
Charlie Pride - 86 of COVID complications.
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RE: RIP thread
December 12, 2020 at 7:13 pm
James Flynn — discoverer of eponymous Flynn effect—rising IQ scores for century.