Yammerhead on Space Daily

If I remember my Heinlein I'm pretty sure the correct term is Yammerhead, although idiot also comes to mind.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/A_Second_Childhood_For_The_Rocketeers_999.html

While much of what this guy said is technically true I can't believe that he expects to be taken seriously by anybody who really knows whats going on with Armadillo. Seems he completely missed the facts that Pixel and Texel were put together in six months for roughly $200,000 by a group of basically (well sort of) amateurs working part time.

Gotta love how the counter point article fails to mention anything along those lines as well.

Gahh! That nut is incredible!

[quote]Jeffrey F. Bell is a former space scientist and recovering pro-space activist.[/quote]

probably says it all.

'recovering pro-space activist'. i.e. 'they wont let me play anymore, so i'm just going to stick my tongue out at them.'

what a doof.
/rick

Gah. I don't even have time in my day to pick apart that article. The problem starts with his main theme, "those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." by which he seems to mean, "If someone has had success doing something one way in the past, then that is the only way to do it and you are a nitwit for thinking there is another possible way." Obviously, you'd be a pretty crappy engineer if you approached problems that way. Luckily, he's not one. What you do is called experimentation, and that's what we saw, a series of experiments. The very first untethered flights. I guess the landing gear was the only thing he had to pick on, what with the engine and the control system working so well.

Bell makes good points--but he has it in for rocketry in general it seems.

I wish he would "recover" already.

He is still exhibiting co-dependancy and passive-agressive behavior by posting on space-related boards he is supposed to have recovered from.

He fell off the wagon. Before long he'll be singing "How dry I am."

I didn't reallize there was a thread specifically for bagging this yammerhead. I've been doing it here: Is XPrize Cup Dead???

"Anyone can see that the '03 Wright flyer is underpowered, has severe control problems, lacks proper undercarriage and has no room for cargo or passengers. It barely managed to struggle into the air for a few seconds. The designers should be eternally grateful web-cams won't be invented for another 90 years, so there is no embarrassing video. This is clearly a dead-end. They should go back to repairing bicycles"