Then again, the SR-71, and Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space craft were all designed by guys with slide rules.
Oh, I meant no disrespect; when I said "the F-105 was designed by guys with slide rules," I meant it in an admiring way.
And I should have said "slide rules and wind tunnels."
SR-71 was the work of a bona-fide aeronautical genius, of whom I stand in awe.
Airplanes, like bicycles and heat exchangers, become less stable at low speeds.
Rockets, including Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo — as well as Shuttle during ascent — are unstable at all speeds. They are inherently unstable; if they lose engine power on the way up, the results are not pretty.
Fast-forward to 1:55 on this video to see what happens when the main engine shuts down on a Delta booster, as it launches the GOES-G weather satellite on 3 May 1986. When the engine quit, the rocket was moving at about 4500 mph