philip witham wrote:
> >> Gary Hudson is a pretty smart guy; if he says he can do it, I think he has
> >> a good chance of doing it.
>
> I also hate to be techno-pesimistic, but this is *rockets* you are talking
> about. So, I'd like to point out that Gary Hudson has been involved in
> many, many rocket projects, all failures. I applaud his determination. In
> my opinion, he is a brilliant salesman, and can attract funding to any
> rocket project at all. Since his job in this curent endevour is not a
> technical one, I am sure he is an asset to the project. In my opinion, all
> of his technical ideas of the past were doomed due to a lack of respect for
> simplicity, and I am not speaking out of hindsight. For that matter, most
> space launch projects suffer the same problem.
Another failing of Hudson (which is not bad) is an inability to appreciate the conservative narrow mindedness of most investors. Yes, many of his projects have been excessively complex, however the main reason why he has always had trouble raising sufficient capital is because his ideas are always not part of mainstream aerospace/aerodynamic design conventions, sometimes so far out that people think he's crazy. His Pheonix project was actually rather simple, and would have worked if he was able to get sufficient funding. His funding problem was caused more by the expected bureaucratic expenses adn delays being seen as a major impediment.
Mike Lorrey