I like that last statement of Ted. Different countries, different approaches to the same problem. And interesting solutions for different problems, too. I was allowed to work on American made aircraft as well as on European. To tell which one is better is impossible and not necessary. Aircraft models are direct reactions for the demands of the market.
There's a reason the US Space Shuttle and the Russian version looked very similar. Physics is physics no matter where you live.
Well, that, and the fact that they stole some of the preliminary diagrams for the Space Shuttle (just kidding)
They did make variances with the Buran (the USSR's version of the Shuttle. For one, it was slightly larger in it's cargo bay, and had some variances with the wings in terms of shape near the outboard edges. It made one, unmanned, orbital test flight (after a number of suborbital tests), but it never went fully operational. Those that were part of the Buryan program said the whole system was plagued by Communist Bureaucrat Oversite Syndrome (where the political party bosses dictated what was going to happen when instead of the engineers). As a result, the life support system was never really ready in time, and the CRT's on board had no software to drive them. The program became way too expensive in the waning years of the Soviet era, and was scrapped. There were six Buryan's built. Only two or three have survived, one is in a museum somewhere, I think one is in mothballs at the Star City, Russia facility (at least it was there in 2000), and the other was gutted and made into a walk-on museum ride (complete with vibrating chairs simulating a rocket ride) and restaurant in Gorky Park!
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/buran.htmlhttp://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/buran.htmlBy the way, the word "Buran" in Russian means "Snowstorm". Also of interest is that the Russian word for "peace" is "Sputnik"... which is, of course, what they called the first satellite launched by them that really lit the fire under our space program and the space race!
