Jeremy Clarkson And Chuck Yeager Are In A Twitter Fight Over Airplanes
Jeremy Clarkson, old man who once had a travel show about stereotyping Dutch people and other European nationalities, just actually'd the guy who broke the sound barrier. This is the amazingly dumb Twitter fight I needed today.
This all began with Chuck Yeager, the guy who strapped in to an orange bullet with a rocket on the back and said what the hell let's see what happens, chimed in on Twitter to be his usual self. Basically, here's some cool supersonic history stuff all of you might enjoy. Thanks, Chuck.
Oct 1, 1969 – The Concorde supersonic transport plane flies past MACH 1 for the first time. Slow learners. #Concorde #supersonic #aviation #speed
— Chuck Yeager (@GenChuckYeager) October 2, 2018
This was not taken well by Clarkson, and he could not let Chuck Yeager have this one.
We are still waiting for the SST to get there. Plus, it was Brit tech that got you past Mach 1 remember
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) October 2, 2018
So the old man back and forth continued...
Actually, all the pioneering work done in the U.K by Miles Aircraft Corp was handed over to the US after the war.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) October 2, 2018
... and remains unresolved.
No matter how many times you say it, it is still false information https://t.co/ClPYquaKQX
— Chuck Yeager (@GenChuckYeager) October 2, 2018
I can't say that I'm an expert on any of this, but I did get a degree in history studying the history of technology. It's a fascinating field, and going over it is always illuminating and interesting. But I know from experience that the one thing you do not want to do is try to argue who or which individual is responsible for what first, as everyone disagrees and misunderstands and everything gets extraordinarily messy.
Perfect for Twitter, at least.
(Hat tip to Rob!)