Text 48054, 82 rader
Skriven 2007-02-06 10:37:29 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 48046 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: FidoNews 24:05 [02/05]: G
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06 Feb 07 00:37, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Roy Witt:

 MvdV>>> Don't tell me Howard Hughes designed the Spruce Goose for just
 MvdV>>> that single one meter high hop it ever made.

 RW>> No, he didn't. It was a WW2 brainchild of Henry J Kaiser, the guy
 RW>> whose idea it was to build all of those Liberty ships that sent
 RW>> supplies from the US to Britain.  It was thought to be a good idea
 RW>> by a Senate sub-commitee to avoid the German U-boats. Howard Hughes,
 RW>> President, CEO and owner of Hughes Aircraft bid for the job and won.
 RW>> It wasn't his deep pockets that paid for the development of that
 RW>> airplane, it was the taxpayers' deep pockets.

 MvdV> Ah. That makes a difference in so far that even deeper pockets were
 MvdV> involved. Still, not infinitely deep...

I think 'wisely' made deep with a limit.

 MvdV>>> yes, it was a dead end project, but surely it was never meant
 MvdV>>> to become a display object in the Smithsonian.

 RW>> Actually, it was intended to prove that airplanes, large airplanes,
 RW>> can fly without being made of lite materials such as aluminum.

 MvdV> An obvious failure. It never really flew.

It did get off the water, but it never got to make a real flight.

 RW>>>> When there's more where that came from and it's a never ending
 RW>>>> flow, money is no object.

 MvdV>>> Nonsense.

 RW>> That is fact. The reason the HR-4 never got further than it did was
 RW>> for two reasons; The war had ended and Congress cut off funds to
 RW>> continue development.

 MvdV> Funds were cut off. So obviously money *was* an object.

Funds were cut off for two reasons. The war was over and the aircraft was
no longer needed. Also, there's no sense in spending money on something
that isn't necessary.

 MvdV>>>>> Mr Deep Pocket always looks at the expected returns of his
 MvdV>>>>> investment.

 RW>>>> Not always.

 MvdV>>> Always. On penalty of soon being ex mr deep pockets.

 RW>> The US government's pockets are so deep that it will spend money on
 RW>> a project, even if it makes no headway. Take the US government's war
 RW>> on drugs for instance.

 MvdV> The US government's pockets may be deep, but even those have a
 MvdV> bottom. From what I heard, they are giving up on the war on drugs
 MvdV> because the resources are needed elsewhere...

 MvdV> [..]

 RW>> Oh, he gave up a very good paying job at a local Caterpillar tracter
 RW>> dealer to go out on his own. The idea was to get his son up on his
 RW>> own two feet and just be an adviser to him in his retirement. The
 RW>> problem was that his son was more interested in selling drugs and
 RW>> never showed up for work. The old man had to go out to his house and
 RW>> get him out of bed. That was around noon and didn't leave much time
 RW>> for him to get any work done. That old man lost what he had trying
 RW>> to help someone who didn't deserve it.

 MvdV> Sad story really... :-(

It demonstrates the love of a father for his children. He had lost their
mother at a young age and raised them all by himself. Three out of the
four kids did well in their lives, but the fourth was a rotten apple.

               R\%/itt




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