Space Ship One first powered flight!

wrote:

The planes I listed were some, but not all, of Rutan's failures, times
the he did not "hit a target."

How laughable. You are not qualified to characterize Burt Rutan's
projects as successes or failures. Burt does not consider most of the
projects on your silly "failure" list to be failures at all. Burt is
a giant in aviation. You are nothing. Don't pretend otherwise by
presuming to cast judgement on his accomplishments.

As Theodore Roosevelt correctly noted,

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs
and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the
great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement;
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring
greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid
souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

DO writes:

As Theodore Roosevelt correctly noted,

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better.

Teddy was wrong, and so is DO. For instance, I am not a politician,
have never run for any elective office, but I (and millions of others)
correctly judged California's now former governor Grey Davis to be
incompetent and we got rid of him. Good call and job well done. Many
other examples are available: the movie or art critic (do they have to
be active film makers or painters to judge?), the restaurant critic
(do they have to own and operate a restaraunt before passing judgement
on the service, ambience, and food?), etc.

The original poster correctly responded to the rhetorical question,
"when has Rutan failed?" But answering that question doesn't
necessarily imply disrespect. My guess is that Rutan, and probably
the original poster, would readily acknowledge that failure is a
necessary part of becoming great. This, DO does not seem to
understand; he confuses hero worship and perceived perfection with
greatness.

"Bob Fry" wrote in message
...
DO writes:

As Theodore Roosevelt correctly noted,

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the
strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better.

Teddy was wrong, and so is DO. For instance, I am not a politician,
have never run for any elective office, but I (and millions of others)
correctly judged California's now former governor Grey Davis to be
incompetent and we got rid of him. Good call and job well done.

I would say that the jury is still very much out on that one! Perhaps
you should pick another example.

Getting back to Space Shop One, I think it was a stunning achievement
that did not get near the press it deserved. I still ponder why Burt seems
to be attacking this project the hard way, but you can't argue with success.

Vaughn

Vaughn wrote:

I think it was a stunning achievement

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