There is a big difference between a SS plane at 50 feet and one at 75000 feet. In case you hadn't noticed the shuttle flies supersonic over much of America when its landing and doesn't cause any damage (apart from when it hits the ground which isn't often). The entire you can't fly SS over land was just an excuse to keep Concorde from flying across the US faster than the old planes.
As for cracking block walls I don't believe it. I have seen an attempt to damage a house using a SS plane and it had to fly ludicrously low (about 50 feet) and close (directly above) to even pop a window.
I notice that the US military now has a plane with supercruise just like Concorde used to do (F22).
light bulbs: The British love to point out that Swann had an incandescent lamp before Edison. True. But it used an expensive platinum filament. Edison came up with a cheap carbon filament -- and the electrical generation and distribution system to back it up. (And let's not forget that the AC system in use today was designed by a naturalized American citizen.)
telephones: The telephone is unquestionably an American invention.
computers: Although work was done in a number of countries (eg, Konrad Zuse in Switzerland), the first large-scale electrical and electronic computers were built in the US.
WWW: The Internet -- which the WWW is built over -- is an American invention.
space flight: If you mean simply getting a rocket above the atmosphere, it was likely first done by 'murcans. (I don't think the Germans got high enough.)
Many wartime planes went supersonic in a dive. Few survived to tell of it though.
The plane that finally did it in peace time was the Miles M52, well it WOULD have been the Miles, except the total plans for it were handed to the USA and UK government funding withdrawn from the Miles company. It appeared virtually unchanged as the Bell X-1 , with American stickers all over it. But it was in essence the Miles plane. A smaller unmanned version of which had reached Mach 1.38 in about 1946/7.
The key thing that allowed the X-1 to maintain control in transonic flight was the Miles' all moving tailplane. This got around the control reversal that plagued transonic aircraft fitted with conventional elevators.
The USA was about 5 years behind everyone else in jet engines and high speed flight, till they lifted what they could from the UK and Germany to make up for the ideas and research they didn't have. Of course staying out of the war as long as possible, lending money to the winning side, finally joining it, and not actually ever getting bombed proved excellent business, and they were then the only country in the world with enough money left to spend on waving a supersonic dick around.
The steam engine, Invented here. Steel. Invented here. Electronic Computers. Invented here. Radar, especially the magnetron, invented here. The jet engine, invented here and in Germany almost simultaneously. The all moving tailplane for supersonic flight, invented here. Motherhood, invented in Africa Apple Pie, invented here. God, invented in the Middle East, Reinvented in Rome.. Democracy, Invented in Greece (and much good it did them) The Mafia, invented in Sicily (and much good it did them) Americans are pretty carp at inventing anything: Mostly its a ripoff of someone else's idea made successful through selling in vast quantities to a gullible nation.
I think they maty be credited with fast food, and obesity, and the coca cola however. And spurious tailfins on cars. And drag racing. But really that's about it.
Oh, the Blues, I guess the black slaves invented that, and jazz,
Says it all really.
Really the only significant US contributions of any value to modern life have been the semiconductor, the integrated circuit, and the high level programming language, courtesy of COBOL.
Though even there high level languages go back a bit further. To Europe.
What the USA is superb at is business. Taking something from someone else, and pretending they thought of it first, and selling it in vast quantities backed by a flood of syrupy marketing that pretends its is factual.
They are without doubt, the greatest LIARS the world has ever known.
Many thanks to all. The push on brass connectors are a welcome solution, many thanks. I can easily buy those at Maplins.
To throw a little light on this unnecessary rudeness to our American cousins. The expression Amearkin came up because in the U.S. they could say American so quickly it sounded like Amearkin. So across the pond they became Amearkins...quite harmless.
However some low lifes changed this to Merkins. A few hundred years ago in order to deal with body lice, ladies would shave their lower private parts. Since this was deamed un-attractive, they could buy small triangular wigs which were called...you guessed it Merkins. Please dont let the low-lifes get you down, we have as many here as you have there. And they just love the internet.
At 50 feet, it would have hit a tree, and you don't land at 75,000 feet, which is 14.2 miles AAT. They have to descend to land, and gain altitude to leave any airfield. Airports balked at longer runways for
747s, and many would have had to move to have anything longer. it would take decades to use 'Eminent Domain' to take homes and businesses for the extra land at current sites.
Are you sure they have never caused any damage? Have you ever been in Florida when one loops over the state before landing? That distinctive double boom has a lot of energy when it's close. I've heard plenty of them over the last 20 years. I also built some of the communications equipment and telemetry equipment used to track them.
prove it. No commercial SS was allowed, and military SS has limited flight paths at lower altitudes which limits the bases they can operate from.
Sigh. Do you ever study anything, or just type bullshit?
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