• 7bicycles [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    It doesn't really feel like the apex of cutting edge technology even in the 50s tbh. I don't understand the huge deal either. It's a big plane, they have been around for a good 100 years or so now in general and the mechanics are well understood, how is either of this particularly noteworthy?

    • 4zi [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s easy and cheap to engineer and build a small inefficient plane, it’s intensely difficult to engineer and build a large efficient plane

    • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      because airplane building (in large scale) is very 'capital intensive' and requires the country to have a technical know-how to do it.

      • 7bicycles [he/him]
        ·
        1 year ago

        neither of those points seem like a huge challenge to something like the USSR or China

        • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          i mean yea, USSR did manage to build planes relatively early but what I meant was (like the other person mentioned) outside Airbus/Boeing there aren't many companies building commercial planes because of how risky and capital intensive it is.

          being able to domestically manufacture such stuff is very important to prevent dependence on imports and protect against potential embargoes.

          same thing with computer chips. there is a reason why China isn't there yet in terms of competing with the west on chip manufacturing. it requires a shit ton investment in equipment, technology, infrastructure and takes a very long time especially with the west guarding their IP.

          Capitalists don't like making such investments unless they absolutely have to (eg privately owned rail infrastructure in the U.S.). They like short term profits which is why there won't be much chip production happening in India anytime soon.

          • daisy
            ·
            1 year ago

            it requires a shit ton investment in equipment, technology, infrastructure and takes a very long time especially with the west guarding their IP.

            Fortunately the Chinese government is pushing hard for domestic adoption and production of RISC-V. This is an open-source, royalty-free CPU reference design that competes largely with ARM. NASA is also adopting it as their standard architecture for space-based computers for decades to come, as a way to prevent vendor lock-in. They want spacecraft computers to be much more modular.

    • Fuckass
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      deleted by creator