NASA rips off 1902 Sturmey Archer Technology!

Spotted this article in an engineering magazine:

http://i26.tinypic.com/5yytlh.jpg

The concept of a compact planetary gearing system seems awfully familiar!

With the planetary Epicyclic gear system being taken from James Watts 1781 patent.

Just goes to show, technology goes around/comes around. If it works it works - making it lightweight/fragile/expensive/fiddly is not an "improvement". Its just different. And in the case of our trusty fixed wheels, this rings most true.

Brilliant thanks for posting. Unbelievable that no one else in the production of this system has spotted that it is not new technology. Write in and tell them.

Ha, and they want a patent on it... I'll just fetch that SA hub out of the shed...

isn't it the phase shifting that makes it differ from a standard planetary gear though, hence the desire to file a patent?

isn't it the phase shifting that makes it differ from a standard planetary gear though, hence the desire to file a patent?

I only go to an engineering school, I dont *actually *know how anything works.

Still a bit odd not to cite either james watt or sturmey archer and speak about the whole thing like its a COMPLETELEY new revolutionary technology. IT seems like a very tiny modification of the old Sturmey at the most.