Mainly because the Soviet design bureaux (Tupolev, Ilyushin, Yaklovev) didn't do the actual research involved in aircraft production. That function was taken by TsAGI, the Central Aero- and Hydrodynamics institute. A good analogy would be if American aircraft design houses had to get their...
It should be remembered that the J-58 engines used in the A-12/YF-12/SR-71 were variable-cycle engines like those proposed for the XF-103. The J-58 was originally designed by Pratt and Whitney for the aborted Lockheed CL-400 Suntan (later Gusto, then Oxcart, which then went on to become the...
Hey, seeing as how the current timeline date suits it, and Canada has something of a lead in many naval technologies, how about we have them start work on supercavitation? 100-knot subs and 300-know torpedoes seem kind of cool...
Same with Pournelle and Niven's book "Footfall" although the "Foot" is a prelude to an alien invasion; lands in the Indian Ocean. AC Clarke's "Hammer of God" actually has a chapter dedicated to Tunguska; if it had hit a few minutes earlier it would have wiped out Moscow (what with the earth's...
OOB, Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but if the Monroe accident is anything more than a 7 on your scale, it will basically mean the end of all commerce on the Great Lakes (on both sides of the border) and out to the Atlantic until 1971, at least; it would also mean the effective...
Sort of. It's based on the CL-84 Dynavert which was the most successful tilt-wing built -- it had a safety record that rivalled the XV-15 tiltrotor. Given the fifty-year advance in tech (FADEC, fly-by-wire, advanced prop technology and so forth) it could be a world beater. It would have pretty...
Another option is to have space opened to commercial interests sooner. The Space Treaty signed in 1957 basically banned non-governmental bodies from exploiting space; this was pushed by the Soviets who, obviously, didn't care about companies in space.
So say the Americans and British refuse to...
You could flip it the other way as well -- have Russia not become Communist (i.e. Mensheviks beat the Bolsheviks in the Revolution). Earlier POD with lots more butterflies but would be more palatable to the Allies to have troops fighting in the East.
Oh, and I note that a version of the Scorpion would be AWESOME on just about any Canadian ship that can hold a helicopter. The CA-200/CL-84 is not much bigger than a Sea King...
I envision ASW versions, Plane Guard versions on the CVs, COD...
A gift for MrMann -- a proper CA-200 Scorpion:
I did have a bit of a beef with the basically-GAU-8 you gave it originally -- that's way too much gun for most aircraft. It's almost too much for the A-10 which is a much bigger plane; I've talked to some Michigan ANG guys who fly Warthogs and...
Not bad. I can see the Falcon doing well in North America as replacement for the Taurus and Crown Vic lines but I can't see how well it would do in Europe. Maybe lean on Volvo a little more for R&D; the P1 and P2 platforms developed in Sweden would become the backbone (hurr hurr) of several Ford...
Wanted to see this guy added somewhere in the TL.
January 26, 1962: USN Rear Admiral Robert Anson Heinlein is tapped to head up the new US Advanced Research Projects Agency, or ARPA. RAdm Heinlein, who is a personal friend of both Dr. Osimov and Electra Tesla, has a background in the sciences...