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On the XPrize launches they used a rocket with a "feathering" rear section. Rutan's design there was genius. A lift vehicle that could reenter the atmosphere sans any special heat shielding like on the early capsules and shuttles. My guess here is this rig will eventually be used as a people shuttle. Leave Musk to lift tonnage. View Quote |
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How long before that thing is scattered all over the desert, The NTSB is performing an investigation, and shareholders are wanting to know what the fuck the CEO has been doing with his company's money?
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I see the arfcom everybody is an expert on everything they see posted crew has arrived.
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This. I would have connected the horizontal stabilizers together to make it stronger. I hope they have a good reason for not doing so. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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There was no genius in that design, if you tried it at actual orbital velocities it would burn up in seconds. It works when you are at suborbital altitude and a tiny fraction of orbital velocity. The same genius mechanism killed a test pilot and damn near killed another on SS2, when it unlocked at speed. View Quote |
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Scaled has a reputation for being the best specialized aircraft design firm on the planet. They absolutely know what they're doing. White Knight 2 has been flying for years with no issues. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Virgin_Galactic_Scaled_Composites_348_White_Knight_2_Ryabtsev.jpg View Quote |
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I wish it well and I love the concept of being able to launch a rocket while in the air and already having fwd velocity...
Cool stuff...fire that bitch up and test drive it. |
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I wish it well and I love the concept of being able to launch a rocket while in the air and already having fwd velocity... Cool stuff...fire that bitch up and test drive it. View Quote |
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New word of the day (for me). Empennage: an arrangement of stabilizing surfaces at the tail of an aircraft View Quote ![]() |
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Yes you did. And it still didn't dissuade all the self professed aerodynamicists from doubting the expertise of Scaled Composites.
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Yeah looks like it would need a boom between the tails to help support it and keep the two halves square with each other. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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Totally different design. Entire plane with flimsy wings designed to keep a SINGLE Centered cockpit in the air. Now add 2 cockpits, and 3 heavyass rockets, and NO center support and see how far you get. Let us know how your flight went with those unsupported tailfins kicking like a kid learning to dogpaddle with a bag of tire weights strapped to its belly , ok? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Like this piece of junk? ![]() http://www.aviastar.org/pictures/usa/scaled_globalflyer.jpg Only THREE non-stop flights around the globe? Psssh.... Now add 2 cockpits, and 3 heavyass rockets, and NO center support and see how far you get. Let us know how your flight went with those unsupported tailfins kicking like a kid learning to dogpaddle with a bag of tire weights strapped to its belly , ok? ![]() Granted the scale of the StratoLaunch is extreme, but it's still a concept that Rutan has proven with airworthy examples again and again over the last 30 years. The StratoLaunch may indeed fail for reasons innumerable, but not simply because a bunch of laymen in GD think the empennage look flimsy. |
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Think of the Vulcan machine gun that could fit in the middle ![]() View Quote |
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load that sucker with 4 to 8 mother of all bombs and then when it drops the bombs it does so in a synchronized manner so that each bomb precisely follows the path of the one before for the grandady of all bunker penetraters. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Think of the Vulcan machine gun that could fit in the middle ![]() |
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Not an aeronautical engineer but that shit don't look right to me. ETA: Why is it that the cockpit/nose sections of those planes look familiar? Almost like they were scabbed off another airframe or something. View Quote |
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Using existing windshields would reduce costs. Heated windshields are extremely expensive and one off models even more so. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Not an aeronautical engineer but that shit don't look right to me. ETA: Why is it that the cockpit/nose sections of those planes look familiar? Almost like they were scabbed off another airframe or something. |
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It wouldn't be. If anything the airframe would be reinforced. Still, I'm looking for the why View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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What do you bet it breaks apart on flight? That looks flimsy as hell If anything the airframe would be reinforced. Still, I'm looking for the why My point is that it would be better suited for actual flight if it had Ujoints on that center section. |
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The sheer amount of stupid in this thread is mind bottling.
Yes you basement dwellers are smarter than the engineers that designed every inch of this plane. Aircraft engineering hasn't progressed one iota since Howard Hughs. This thing will sheer apart mid flight ![]() |
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The sheer amount of stupid in this thread is mind bottling. Yes you basement dwellers are smarter than the engineers that designed every inch of this plane. Aircraft engineering hasn't progressed one iota since Howard Hughs. This thing will sheer apart mid flight ![]() View Quote |
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This ![]() All the geniuses in here surpass fucking Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team lol View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I see the arfcom everybody is an expert on everything they see posted crew has arrived. ![]() All the geniuses in here surpass fucking Burt Rutan and the Scaled Composites team lol The Stratolaunch will fly because aviation science is just too far advanced in the 21st century for a new airframe not to fly. It could outmoded by the new launch systems for the rockets was originally designed to serve, it could be too expensive to fly due to size and maintenance costs. But the Stratolaunch will will fly, operate in the envelope it was designed for, and return safely to earth. |
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Interesting and all but Chairborne's avatar is all I need! Go Phantom!
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That's a Scaled Composites craft, there's literally no other aerospace company I would trust more as an engineer to have figured out the problems in such a design. I know it looks different but so did the Concorde. The main benefits of this kind of platform is that (a) you can build the rocket nozzles much more efficiently since they don't have to function near full atmospheric pressure and (b) your launch windows are enormous and it is much easier to rendezvous quickly with a variety of satellites in existing orbits. Interesting precedent that I didn't know about until just now - in the 1970's the USAF launched a freaking Minuteman out of the back of a C-5! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b8LLcdBaQc View Quote |
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I thought a bunch of people died on Concorde's and they stopped flying them... View Quote |
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I like it, but strongly believe it should be connected toward the tails, too for stability.
It's a monstrous fucking thing to be only connected by a front wing. Seems dangerous. |
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As I recall, one had a tire shred itself on takeoff and damage the plane enough to cause a crash shortly after takeoff. The decision was then made to retire them, but that was a decision that had been coming for some time, due to an aging fleet and not really being a money maker. View Quote |
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lol at that plane, looks ready to break. If you think that's safe, go research American Airlines 587
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