Ernest Schwiebert on ballistic missile development: “The hurdle… was not a sound barrier, or a thermal barrier, but rather a mental barrier, which is really the only type that man is ever confronted with anyway.” (via Rescuing Prometheus)
Poignant if not literally true!
Conversation
What was the mental barrier?
1
Replying to
The Air Force saw itself as “about" daring pilots, planes in combat—the officers were almost all former pilots. Atlas was in part about a shift from pilots and battlefield strategy to scientists, engineers, and analysts.