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If you, me, and the chippy are in the same place at the same time, and W&B permit, you are welcome to ride the back seat. She's Liverpool based, so unless we meet at a fly-in or suchlike it would have to be 'oop north'.
Didn't know Jakimiuk was on the Concorde design team. That's another aeroplane he got right, then.
Merlin to Olympus? The latter was a Bristol engine, wan't it? It only later became a RR powerplant.
But regarding design leaps, we don't seem to do them these days. Wrights flew early last century. By 1949 we had a 4-engined pressurised jet transport flying (dH Comet). By the '60s we had SSTs (Concorde & TU144) and we'd been to the Moon and back. What has aviation acheived since the '60s? We have, err, 4 engine subsonic pressurised jet transports! OK, they are bigger, quieter, safer, and far more efficient. But still, basically, grown up versions of that dH Comet!
So the lovely Chippy is a child of the heyday of aviation.
Cheers
SSD