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UK Skylon spaceplane passes key review (from runway to orbit)
BBC ^
| May 24, 2011
| Jonathan Amos
Posted on 05/24/2011 4:06:07 PM PDT by decimon
click here to read article
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Skylon would operate from a runway
1
posted on
05/24/2011 4:06:09 PM PDT
by
decimon
To: decimon
People with all the right credentials have said this can’t be done. Looks like it will be done.
2
posted on
05/24/2011 4:07:35 PM PDT
by
decimon
To: decimon
Not going to happen because the UK bureaucrats will regulate it out of existence.
3
posted on
05/24/2011 4:08:02 PM PDT
by
Jack Hydrazine
(It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
To: SunkenCiv; Paleo Conservative
Play among the stars ping.
4
posted on
05/24/2011 4:09:29 PM PDT
by
decimon
To: decimon
Not much for wings. Must have a REALLY high stall speed.
5
posted on
05/24/2011 4:12:14 PM PDT
by
Rio
To: decimon
The Brits/French now have the largest airline. The British/French had the fastest commercial airplane (Concord).
So this is their newest piece of engineering. Very very nice.
They also have a successful space program.
To: Jack Hydrazine
That’s what you think. The Chinese will steal the design and build it themselves. Bureaucrats who get in the way of progress there get shot in the head.
7
posted on
05/24/2011 4:15:43 PM PDT
by
Ronin
("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves" -- Bertrand de Jouve)
To: decimon
Artistic license?
There is no way anything with that little of a wing can lift enough fuel & oxidizer to make it to orbit, let alone lift off only half way down the runway. With that long a fuselage aft of the main gear it could not have that much angle of THAT close to the runway.
/armchair aerodynamics
8
posted on
05/24/2011 4:16:34 PM PDT
by
BwanaNdege
("Experience is the best teacher, but if you can accept it 2nd hand, the tuition is less." M Rosen)
To: Rio
Damn, that is a sexy looking beast.
9
posted on
05/24/2011 4:16:42 PM PDT
by
Ronin
("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves" -- Bertrand de Jouve)
To: BwanaNdege
F104 Starfighter
X15 Rocketplane
Raw thrust overcomes a multitude of short winged sins ;)
To: decimon
The Brits/French now have the largest airline. The British/French had the fastest commercial airplane (Concord).
So this is their newest piece of engineering. Very very nice.
They also have a successful space program.
To: Rio
Dammed in that does not look like a space plane right out of an early 50’s Science Fiction movie....glad to see the UK up to doing it after the a--hole left has killed our space program
12
posted on
05/24/2011 4:26:51 PM PDT
by
tophat9000
(Global Warming, undeniable truth; Obama, infallible genius; Apple perfect, invented everything)
To: decimon
13
posted on
05/24/2011 4:27:37 PM PDT
by
decimon
To: decimon
"The government hasn't got that sort of money and we want this project to be a privately financed one," said Alan Bond, the managing director of REL. That's the most encouraging thing in the article.
He's predicting around $450/lb. to LEO, I think SpaceX will probably have a rocket providing that price to orbit before this ever leaves the ground.
It turns out you don't need any whiz-bang technology to get to orbit cheaply, you just need a properly managed company that doesn't fall into the cost-plus development traps that make development costs skyrocket.
14
posted on
05/24/2011 4:29:55 PM PDT
by
Brett66
(Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
To: decimon
Kind of reminds me of Disaster Area’s stunt ship from “The restaurant at the end of the universe”:
“It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
“It’s so ... black!” said Ford Prefect. “You can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!” “
To: decimon
There are no more engineers at NASA. Just bureaucrats with technical degrees.
To: dsthompson
And wasting time looking for ET and studies on Global Warming.
17
posted on
05/24/2011 4:44:29 PM PDT
by
screaminsunshine
(Socialism...Easier said than done.)
To: decimon
Hey, where’s the plan for Muslim outreach?
18
posted on
05/24/2011 4:50:21 PM PDT
by
RightGeek
(FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
To: cruise_missile
I thought DL was the largest airline in the world.
19
posted on
05/24/2011 4:57:09 PM PDT
by
dinodino
20
posted on
05/24/2011 5:01:26 PM PDT
by
razbinn
(I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,and to the republic for which it ...)
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