In article
,
Jim Wilkins wrote:

On Jun 11, 7:55*am, Spehro Pefhany
wrote:

Remember the laughter when vacuum tubes were discovered in analyzing a
stolen Soviet fighter jet-- then they figured out why (survival of
communications electronics from the EMP of nuclear explosion). As
we've found out from using their ICBMs to launch satellites (pinpoint
accuracy), their aerospace technology was very, very good for the
time, but their commercial stuff was generally lousy-- degrading
perfectly good raw materials into garbage that nobody who had a choice
wanted.

Spehro Pefhany

I remember the laughter coming from the press, not the aerospace
community. Those vacuum tubes were in a chassis that raised up
hydraulically for easier, faster servicing. The plane had rust on it
because it went so fast that aluminum would have weakened from the
heat. Soviet gear was relatively simple and effective.

The Soviet stuff was usually crude but effective, and produced cheaply
in large quantities.


The American
military was substantially a high-tech trade school that gave us the
skills to compete globally, so complexity was an advantage.

There was a deeper reason. The Warsaw Pact had about five times the
numbers of tanks and men at arms in Europe as the West. So, the West
had to have "force multipliers" sufficient to overwhelm a 5:1 numerical
advantage. Thus the complexity. Which the West could do, while the
Soviet could not.

Joe Gwinn