Flap V and LMD,
I think the Sultan of Brunei could afford a sub-orbital flight from LHR to home. Bill Gates could have, but his stock is sort of in the tank these days.
Come to think of it, we haven't made any progress in orbital speed in 40 years either, and the XB-70 and Blackbird designs are over 35 years old.
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The good news of the day is that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is going to put all of its courses on the Web, so ppruners can look forward to getting their virtual aeronautical engineering degrees. I just hope that there will be not be a new forum devoted solely to swapping answers to the problem sets.
[This message has been edited by SaturnV (edited 05 April 2001).]