Posted on 05/31/2017 3:25:11 PM PDT by PROCON
Six years after Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen started up Stratolaunch Systems, the billionaire’s air-launch venture brought its humongous twin-fuselage airplane out in the open for the first time today.
“Stratolaunch came out of the hangar for fuel testing,” Allen said in a tweet that featured an aerial photo of the plane. More pictures were posted to Stratolaunch’s website.
Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd said the plane’s emergence from its hangar at California’s Mojave Air and Space Port was part of a “major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable and routine access to low Earth orbit.”
The plane is designed to carry up to three Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rockets at a time into the air, and then set them loose to launch payloads into orbit.
Today’s outing signaled that the aircraft’s initial construction phase is complete, and that it’s ready to start ground and flightline testing. Two tugs pulled the plane out onto the tarmac in front of the hangar’s roughly 400-foot-wide doors.
(Excerpt) Read more at geekwire.com ...
THAT I understand. Does it, can it fly without a payload holding it together? Obviously it has to once it releases the rockets.
The back end as two independent units of horizontal stabilizer, rudder, and elevators each seems to me would be extremely difficult to maintain control.
Seems to me in other than perfectly controlled laboratory conditions this design is questionable.
This is the outgrowth of Rutan’s White Knight (X-Prize) and White Knight Two (Virgin Galactic.
The concept goes back to the original X planes - Bell X-1, the X-2 up through the X-15, all carried to altitude by our then current largest bomber.
I saw a B47 do that at the south end of Boeing Field in Seattle in 1956.
No wonder why he sold one of his yachts.............
Hopefully, UP!
:-)
Mark
Paul Allen funded Burt Rutan/Scaled Composites X-Prize winning space program - Spaceship One and White Knight.
The entire program cost $25 million.
https://www.amazon.com/Black-Sky-Winning-X-Prize-DVD/dp/B000E4K4XK Black Sky: Winning the X-Prize DVD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKa67ObI7yk Black Sky
“I saw a B47 do that at the south end of Boeing Field in Seattle in 1956.”
Man, I bet that was cool. Both the B47 and the rockets.
It's two, two, two planes in one!
I visited the collection in February and did not see it. A google search makes it appear that it is still being restored (below)
The planes in the collection are 99% factory condition. The docents told me he’s a stickler for authenticity. That being the case, there must be lots of fabrication as there are no boneyards to scrounge for the 262
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.aviation.military/OjfAHbFgU3w
The guy is a genius!
I did a little more digging and it sounds like it’s over in England. It should be real interesting as far as the engine modifications go. Very few people alive have ever heard a genuine Jumo before.
“Break Left! ... No dammit, Break Right! ...”
I was crossing the Mojave today and saw it with the hanger door open. I wondered if it was a Burt Rutan followup to Proteus and now I know what I saw.
Asymmetric loads look like it might be an issue, but this is a Rutan design, so probably already factored in.
The Doublemint girls!!!
BINGO!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.