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Aviation Week cover stories from 2004 and 2024

(Sep 4, 2024 06:57 PM)Yazata Wrote: [ -> ]Aviation Week cover stories from 2004 and 2024

Wow! The price of that rag up $8.95 over 20 years.

That #1 engine looks much more simple when compared with the others surrounding it.

(Sep 4, 2024 07:46 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: [ -> ]Wow! The price of that rag up $8.95 over 20 years.

Inflation!

Quote:That #1 engine looks much more simple when compared with the others surrounding it.

Yeah, it's the first of SpaceX's version.3 Raptor engines.

It's much easier to manufacture in quantity on an assembly line than previous rocket engines, including the older version 1 and 2 Raptors behind it. It's designed to have more thrust and fewer potential points of failure. They have been really trying to get rid of external plumbing and bolted flanges because the earlier engines were comparatively fragile and prone to fiery fuel leaks.

So not only has SpaceX succeeded in rocking Boeing, it's rocked the entire aerospace industry not only with reusable rockets that drive down the price per kg to space, with America's only currently operational crew access to orbit, but also with the world's most advanced, simple, elegant and manufacturable rocket engines. That demands not only innovations in engine design, but also in manufacturing processes.

On this date, 16 years ago, Falcon 1 first reached orbit,

How it started, How it's going: