Best Engineering in the Past 100 years

[scottdave]

Use of microwave energy for:
communication
RADAR and it's uses: weather, navigation, tracking, distance and speed measuring.
And of course cooking

To add on to this, I'd recommend this book. Eight Amazing Engineering Stories by Bill Hammack https://www.amazon.com/dp/0983966133/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[atyy]

Use of microwave energy for:
communication
RADAR and it's uses: weather, navigation, tracking, distance and speed measuring.
And of course cooking

To add on to this, I'd recommend this book. Eight Amazing Engineering Stories by Bill Hammack https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Amazing-Engineering-Stories-Extraordinary/dp/0983966133/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547929765&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=eight+engineering+stories&dpPl=1&dpID=41WOw0yU8+L&ref=plSrch

A book about radar I enjoyed was Buderi's "The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technical Revolution" https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684835290/?tag=pfamazon01-20

In my own field, I always find it fascinating that Alan Hodgkin contributed to the wartime radar effort, before his famous post-war work on the action potential. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Lloyd_Hodgkin

 

[diogenesNY]

Although it was only really important and useful for a fairly short period of time, it is hard to overstate the cleverness and importance of the _reverse_ engineering of the Enigma Machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

diogenesNY

 

[jim hardy]

it is hard to overstate the cleverness and importance of the _reverse_ engineering of the Enigma Machine.

WW2 gave birth to modern control theory, too.

http://www.ieeecss.org/CSM/library/1995/dec1995/05-BellLabsnAutoCtrl.pdf

 

[anorlunda]

Moderator's note: A slightly-morbid and semi-serious sub-thread on parachutes was cleaned up.

 

[BWV]

Speaking of WW2, how about the T-34 tank?

The T-34 was the most advanced and lethal tank of its time. Its sloped armor, mobility and for the time powerful armament made it far superior to any tanks early in the war. It was far more important to the defeat of Nazi Germany than Enigma