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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3311 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 26, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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WWII plane is just about one calculator and a booster rocket short of being the space shuttle.

No. Just no. It cost a mere $800k in present day dollars to produce.

Meanwhile, rocket boosters, even the most economical ones such as Falcon 9 have a marginal cost of $15 million, and it takes $1 million dollar to refurbish them after a flight. Shuttle infamously cost $1 billion per start, an example of waste and inefficiency.

IF you want to compare spaceplanes to planes, SR-71 is about one of the few valid examples.

Well, congratulations. You have successfully out-autisted the German. That's what I get for attempting a joke.

Revel in your triumph as I commit Sudoku to expunge the shame of my defeat!

There are material costs, and then there engineering/design costs.

I think one of Musk's original reasons for going into the space game was that he realized material and engineering costs for rockets should be comparable to airplanes, but rockets were way more expensive. So presumably there was room for a lot of improvement either on the material or engineering side.

Even still, planes were a lot simpler back in the day... even the engineering costs were probably fairly low in comparison to what came later.

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