"Derek Lyons" wrote in message
...
Jim Kingdon wrote:


[1]For instance; SS1's current demonstrated performance barely matches
the X-1 (nearly fifty years ago), and in it's final form will barely
match the X-15 (over forty years ago). Simple bald facts, but
embarrassing to the 'four legs/two legs' mindset.


You're ignoring the crucial fact that NASA walked away from this technology
and refused to even reconsider it because it would make subsequent decisions
look bad. This sort of situation doesn't exist in a competitive market -
any company that refuses to face reality about failing projects will
eventually go out of business. Can you imagine any comercial entity flying
an aircraft that failed to meet it's design criteria as miserably as the
shuttle has?

It's not all that strange that it took a bunch of bootstrap organizations 40
years to catch up to the state-of-the-art, with NASA effectively blocking
all commercial incentive to do so and thereby driving away any potential
investors.