How do you feel about the Japanese Zero? Do you think Mitsubishi will ever produce something worthwhile?
Several of the pre-war American designers could have created an excellent fighter along the lines of the A6M, just as Mitsubishi had: Johnson, Douglass, Schmued, and no doubt others. But we didn't, as the design philosophy of the Zero reflected the ethos of the Japanese military at the time. It was light, nimble, tricky to fly at the edge of its performance envelope, and had a terrific power-to-weight ratio. A ratio made possible by the fact that it had almost no armor whatsoever. It's difficult to imagine today with 25,000 pound fighter aircraft being common, but the Zero only weighed about as much as a Toyota Camry! If I remember correctly, the totality of its armor consisted of a single piece of steel armor plate behind the pilot's head and torso. As a result of this trade-off, the Zero dominated the Pacific theater for some time.
On the consumer side, I drove a Japanese domestic version (right-hand drive) of the Mitsubishi Galant for three years. The Galant was a comfortable, reasonably responsive sedan. If there had been a way for us to bring it stateside without spending a ludicrous amount of money we would have done so.
The reason I looked up this thread was to make a tired, repetitive observation. Star Trek, The Original Series was incredibly progressive. I don't think that a person who grew up in the 2000s, 1990s, or 1980s can intuitively comprehend just how far beyond the times it was. In the 1960s, people freely used the N-word in public. Women in engineering fields were as rare as hen's teeth. Physical abuse of one's spouse was not only commonplace, but socially acceptable to a fair degree, and openly joked about.
The first pass of this post included a contemporary, disturbingly misogynistic joke—to give a sense of the common view at the time. But I don't have the fortitude, even for reasons of education.
Star Trek wasn't perfectly crafted, obviously, but I contend that it was amazingly progressive. Interracial relationships. Hell, even inter
species relationships. Strong, confident women. Men struggling with their emotions (on occasion). Roddenberry even addressed ageism in at least one of the latter episodes. Sure, ST-TNG repeatedly pointed out that Starfleet had eliminating ageism, but ST-TOS did it first. Even with their often heavy-handed morality lessons, a lot of the original Star Trek episodes hold up today, some fifty years later.
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TOTP conga dance!
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