Comment by simonbw
9 hours ago
> is so elegant it’s still being used today
I think it's the "so elegant" part that's wrong. It's not still being used today because it's so elegant. It's still being used today because the old helicopters haven't replaced it.
I think elegance has to do with the technology of the time. Some clever design that is cheaper/better than you would otherwise think possible given the era. There are probably many elegant aspects to Roman aqueduct engineering, but they would still get replaced with modern materials during a retrofit.
if it was less elegant from a function/cost perspective, it would have been replaced a long time ago.