Engines On!

This is coolbert:

"ground control to Major Tom - - commencing countdown engines on!!"

From a comment to the blog by Steiner:

"My reading of the literature suggests that the core shortcoming was in jet engine technology, particularly the efficiency thereof."

Soviet antediluvian technology at the time of 1945, NOT up to standards regarding aerospace power plant design, necessitating slavish imitation and copying. This is suggested and is perhaps true?

"antediluvian  - - adjective 2. very old, old-fashioned, or out of date; antiquated; primiteve: antediluvian ideas.

From this prior blog entry we have this entry - - the AS-1 using a COPY of foreign turbojet technology in lieu of Soviet designs:

"powered by an RD-20 turbojet, a copy of the German BMW-003, but it wasn't powerful enough, and so a RD-500K, a copy of the British Rolls Royce Derwent V turbojet designed for expendable operation, was used instead."

And also from this additional prior blog entry the entire process of "copying" foreign designs, air frame and engine both in slavish imitation, the drawbacks obvious even to the imitator:

"Comment by A.S.: 'Step Forward' in such a case is nothing but a step ... backwards. Copying of 4-5 years old technology (yes, very advanced at its time) instead of developing of a domestic one (specially in this case) was'":

* "removing intellectual and industrial resources from new projects;"
* "spending them on design soon to became obsolete;"
* "planting seeds of a very bad habit - copying - into domestic science and engineering;"

That period of aerospace history [1945] and shortly subsequent to we have an intense ferment in power plant design and development. The jet engine and all other air craft propulsion coming on line the defects and bugs of which having to be worked out and pronto. The Soviet lagging badly in this regard. The jet engine too invented just in time, the internal-combustion radial engines for the time reaching a peak of development beyond which further improvements could be made only in small increments with little improvement.

That jet engine providing three times the amount of power in the same size package. An awesome and much needed improvement.

The copying and imitation of foreign designs, jet engines or otherwise as done by the Soviets NOT necessarily always such a bad thing from THEIR perspective.

Soviet military intelligence [GRU] at all times either purchasing, purloining or even gathering in bits and pieces as needed weapons technology of all types for study and evaluation AND DOING SO AS STANDARD PROCEDURE. Soviet industry copying as needed or incorporating into their own designs the positive features of foreign technology while at the same time avoiding the negative features!

Obtaining one each of as many models of torpedoes, radars, tank engines, jet engines, cipher machines as possible, foreign models useful to Soviet weapons designers, again, the result of such study and evaluation allowing for Soviet analogs to comport to the highest standards of performance possible.

And it should be recognized that by at least the Korean War, the MiG-15 did possess an engine that was at least equal to or on a par with the latest western designs, and this thanks in measure to the GRU, the study and evaluation of jet technology having progressed to the point where Soviet analogs were NOT found to be lacking!!

coolbert.