DARPA's hypersonic scramjet achieves successful flight

Re:DARPA's hypersonic scramjet achieves successful flight by bobthepanda on Sunday October 03, 2021 @07:12PM (#28741362)

pretty much all of air travel had direct government subsidy in the form of postal contracts in its early days and later price controls. automakers also had a huge subsidy in the form of the massive capital expenditure on highways that were free to use.

developing technologies at taxpayer expense for strategic purposes is nothing new. if private airlines were left to their own devices we probably won't ever move away from the basic shape of subsonic, fossil-fueled jet travel. as it is, the airplane manufacturer duopoly is half kept afloat by defense spending, and it remains to be seen whether or not the full financial cost of 737MAX will result in requiring taxpayer bailout.

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Re:DARPA's hypersonic scramjet achieves successful flight by speedybird on Sunday October 03, 2021 @08:11PM (#28741681)

But afaik all the airplanes used for the earliest demonstrations of airmail were privately funded/constructed. The minimum viable airplane for airmail was within grasp of skilled fabricators working out of their garages; the big government contracts came later. This is world's apart from scramjet tech.

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