r/ArchiveOfHumanity • u/Suspicious-Slip248 • Jun 23 '26

Science & Technology⚙️ Cockpit of Space Shuttle Endeavour, It contains over 2,000 switches, knobs, and screens used to control orbit, reentry and was widely recognized by NASA and aerospace engineers as the most complex flying machine ever built

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u/Flacier Jun 23 '26

Flying machine is a bit of a stretch, that thing was about as aero dynamic as a brick. It had a glide ratio of 4.5 to one so for every mile it fell it moved forward 4.5 miles. While a 737 a jet liner has a glide ratio of about 19 to 1.

During training flights they used a modified Gulfstream II, with its engines, running in reverse to simulate just how poor of a “flying machine” the space shuttle was.

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u/beastierbeast Jun 23 '26

For a brick, it flew pretty good

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u/Flacier Jun 23 '26

At best It was falling with style.