Reply To: What are you doing to promote Focus Fusion…

[Ivy Matt]

Well, I suppose I might as well attempt to answer my own question, although I don’t know if it’s possible to give a definitive answer. The two most well-known US contenders were the Wright Brothers and Samuel Pierpont Langley. Langley received a $50,000 grant from the War Department in 1898 to build a full-scale, piloted, powered aircraft. According to Wikipedia, he also received $20,000 from the Smithsonian Institution (of which he was the Secretary), but I only see the War Department grant mentioned in other sources. I don’t know exactly where that money went over the next five years. Some of it undoubtedly went into producing a quarter-scale powered model aircraft which was first tested in 1901. However, the lion’s share of the money must have gone into the full-scale aircraft, which was test-flown in October and December of 1903. Both tests failed. The second failure was highly publicized, and resulted in much ridicule. Langley understandably did not dare to ask for more funds to continue his work.

According to Wikipedia, the Wright brothers spent less than a thousand dollars on their Flyer I. This information is credited to To Conquer The Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight by James Tobin. The Flyer I would have been their main expense in 1903, although they had no doubt incurred similar expenses since they began experimenting with aircraft in 1899.

Total US revenue was $494,300,000 in 1898 and $662,000,000 in 1903. If my math is correct, Langley’s War Department grant was about one hundredth of a percent of 1898 revenue, even less of 1903 revenue, and even less considering it was spread out over five years. Of course, it’s possible the War Department gave other grants related to aeronautics (such as ballooning) during the same period. Total US revenue in 2010 is $2,165,120,000,000. If the US spent $400,000,000 on fusion research in 2010, that would be about two hundredths of a percent of 2010 revenue. Of that, $124,000,000 went towards ITER, about six thousandths of a percent of 2010 revenue. In comparison, the total cost of each F-22 was about $339,000,000 per aircraft with the total program cost included, or $138,000,000 for each new aircraft manufactured, ignoring total program cost.

In other words, Rezwan’s point, that spending on fusion research is relatively miniscule, even if you include the big, expensive projects, is quite true. However, my counterpoint is that spending on fusion research is most likely to remain miniscule until after some exciting advance, such as “scientific break-even”, is announced or leaks out.

On the other hand, how many people can say they helped fund the Wright brothers before their first successful powered flight?