Think of the timescales involved. Over the last 10 years, to the man in the street, all that you can see is mobiles are smaller, TVs are flatter and the internet's a bit quicker.
But, do you really think they went from the trebuchet to the Howitzer in 10 years? Or even 100 years? One of the major innovations of the 17th century (or was it the 18th?) was going from cast cannons to bored cannons. Someone came up with the idea that if you made a solid cannon and
then drilled the hole down the middle it would be better than just pouring molten metal into a big mould. But cannons had been around for ages!
Innovation at the moment is generally in the details. A 3g phone looks very similar to a 2.5g phone or a 2g phone. But it is a significant development.
But in the post-war years, planes were going from funny little things with spinny windmills on them to great big roaring things with flames shooting out the back. Cars were being designed, developed, etc. I love watching those 1960s public information films about the latest stuff that was coming out. "Look at these brand new gigantic buildings" "Look at this new car with it's FUEL INJECTED ENGINE!!!" "World's biggest computer built in England" "Aren't New Towns brilliant?!", that sort of thing.
Perhaps the glamour has gone out of engineering!
Although, today I bought something that I think is the future... it is a toaster, which has an electric motor-driven raise/lower mechanism. £20 from Tesco, brilliant
Totally pointless, and I bought it in full knowledge that it will probably last about a year, but there is something strangely amusing about a toaster that looks and sounds like a video recorder
