Back to the Future - sort of

[Eric Mc]

In 1962 and 1963, 4 men rode atop the Atlas rocket to become the first Americans to orbit the earth. In a bit of ironic deja vu, the Atlas is set once more to lift American astronauts into orbit, although not a for a few years yet.
For the first time since the late 1950s, a launch gantry is being erected which will allow crew access to a spacecraft sitting on top of an Atlas rocket. In this case it isn't a Mercury space capsule, but a Boeing CST spacecraft which will sit atop a modern generation Atlas 5 booster.

The launch tower and crew access platform began construction at Cape Canaveral in the past few days.



http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/15/build-up-of-c...

[Eric Mc]

And don't forget that in the pre World War 1 era of aircraft development, it was rich playboys and media magnates who provided a lot of the funding.