Is America's aviation/exploration spirit dying ?

[txflyer]

We have no manned space program to speak of, and now I read in AOPA's recent magazine that airshow's could be in trouble.

2013 was the worst year for airshow's in recent history because of the sequester, and the kicker that the FAA wants to charge big dollars for ATC services.

The space program and Thunderbird's were huge influences on me as a boy. I idolized the astronauts, and marveled at the Thunderbirds. I watched them and told myself that's what I want to do someday. Now, kids want to be like Kim and Kanye. It's very sad the role models we serve up nowadays.

 

[Jim Logajan]

The space program and Thunderbird's were huge influences on me as a boy. I idolized the astronauts, and marveled at the Thunderbirds. I watched them and told myself that's what I want to do someday. Now, kids want to be like Kim and Kanye. It's very sad the role models we serve up nowadays.

Um, are you paying attention at all to what is being done now? I ask because you mention the Thunderbirds (I'm going with the cartoon, not the real flying team since they weren't as inspiring to me as the cartoon) and ironically the SpaceX Grasshopper is intended to perform very much like you used to see in those old TV shows. Here is a video of one of their test flights:

 

[Jim Logajan]

I quit watching cartoon's when I was about ten or so, fourty five years ago.

That PVC pipe does not create the majesty of the Saturn V. Or Mercury, Gemini.

Where's the right stuff?

That is a video of the Falcon 9 v1.0 booster, which I believe has a greater payload to LEO than the Atlas booster used for the Gemini project. That is full size real rocket in that video. No PVC pipe toy.

My answer to your question in your first post is a suggestion to follow how SpaceX fares. They are working to lower the cost to orbit so that it is tiny fraction of what it has been. Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars and has managed to establish a lot of space firsts in that goal:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacex

 

[Jim Logajan]

Orbital launch would seem to be the way to go for deeper space travel.

True. It takes as much energy to reach low earth orbit as it does to reach escape velocity and reach the rest of the universe. Low earth orbit is the half-way point to the rest of the universe, kinetic energy-wise.

What happened to ion drive? It was all the rage for about ten seconds. You could burn up to speed on rocket fuel, then switch to ion propulsion to continue on.

Ion drive is not only still all the rage, they are using Xenon ion thrusters in the Dawn spacecraft as the main propulsion. Elsewhere they use ion thrusters in satellites for station-keeping.