Mom was top assistant to Scott Crossfield, X-15 test pilot. Everything you said is what he used to say all the time. ‘Go back to the drawing board’ was his credo.

Made sense since it was his rear end on the line.

Side note: Scott passed away last year at about 85 years old — while flying alone. Mechanical malfunction was the cause they said. He’d mentioned many times how that’s how he wanted to go — in the clouds.

Research aerospace background here (shock surprise). My former boss had the rule no new powerplants AND airframes. The reasoning was simple. He also had another applicable rule; leave the test vehicle alone for 24 hours. At first that doesn’t seem important in either the case of real estate or aerospace. Second sight reveals the wisdom. With 24 hours to ponder problems always fall into two categories; we can deal with it or we need to fix this and reset the 24hr clock.