Triumphrat

Tbirdnz

The carrier plane would look pretty flimsy after the space-craft has blasted off !



The full BBC report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7205445.stm


---------------
Ride on !

trypcil

It splits in the middle and flies off as two planes - or it looks if it wants to!

__________________
http://www.triumphrat.net/photogalle...m794/album346/

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with
the falling of the dusk.” - G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface".

Tbirdnz

I would say that would be a better idea Tryp than trying to fly that length of wing.

I would assume two pilots, they'd better be in agreement which way the want to go if they stayed as a single aircraft.

Flight engineer would be a bit pushed sliding the second engine across the other side !

----------------
Ride on !

trypcil

If the pilots faced in different directions in their respective planes, they could both turn left when they parted! Though the one wing being a bit shorter could be testing, might mean a little bit of juggling with the old throttles - methinks it might work. RB is a sport I gather, I'm sured he'd give it some thought! Personally I'd be in the Caribbean with his kinda dosh, lounging around my Sportfishing boat, than be galavanting around the ionosphere - well unless I was bored !

__________________
http://www.triumphrat.net/photogalle...m794/album346/

The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with
the falling of the dusk.” - G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of Right (1820), "Preface".

BishRat

Like him or not, you've got to admire Richard Branson... as they say, "The boy done good." Starting out selling mail order albums from a public phone box, he's managed to build a pretty big empire, mostly by taking on the established big corporations with a "I can do that" attitude. But, what I admire most of all is that he still seems to be a kid at heart... if he wants to do something, he just goes for it. Call it indulgence or whatever you like, but it's guys like him that stop industry stagnating. If I had built an empire and had that much disposable income, I'd like to think some of it could be used to play (ballooning, high-speed Atlantic crossings, etc.), and some of it could be used for some serious out-of-box endeavors such as this.

Some find him gauche, but at least he's not a nondescript gray corporate suit like so many of our "Captains of Industry". I think that's why Triumph has some extra appeal as a brand... we can see John Bloor as a real person with ideas, hopes and aspirations we can all identify with. Another example is Steve Jobs, who has imbued Apple with a face in a way that (say) Sony could never do.

The power to succeed rests firmly on the shoulders of the power to fail... will anything happen with Virgin Galactic? Maybe not... it could be as dismal a failure as his attempt to do something with the UK rail system, but he's managed to provide a framework and focus for a lot of smart people to explore some pretty edgy engineering.

It's a pity he's not that interested in motorcycles.

Long live the dreamers.

__________________
Cheers... Bish
'06 Black & check Thruxton - AI & airbox gone, TORs, instruments lowered, YSS piggybacks, prog fork springs, gaiters, kneepads, rear fender bobbed, lucas rear light, Napoleons, custom blue/chrome headers, and a little duct tape...

Diego

Three model airplanes glued together... methinks the correct term is "plain spaced-out," not space place.

Only thing missing is the special space propellors.

__________________
John

KingBear

Lifting his ego into the ionosphere...

HiDesert

Good for him. He's today's Howard Hughes, Henry Ford, J.P Getty. Without people like this, we'd all still be huddling in caves, wishing the people who say we're desecrating the caves and should go back to the trees would shut the #e!! up.

It seems strange that all the vertical control surfaces on the orbiter are above the plane of the wings. I'd think they'd want some below, to reduce the overall height of the craft and make it less likely for the tails of the orbiter to come close to the wing of the launch vehicle.

I can't wait to drive a few hours south and watch a launch. It probably won't be anything like a shuttle launch for visual impact, but that's a very good thing. Launching a rocket off the surface straight into orbit or beyond is a very costly way of doing business. We've been stuck with that technology way too long, and this might be what breaks us out of that rut.

__________________
I won't stop riding because you tell me about someone who died in an accident, just as I won't stop eating because someone died of e.coli.

HiDesert's ride photos

markbvt

You may not like the way it looks, but keep in mind that this concept has already made it into space several times to win the X-Prize.

I find it ironic that the US government abandoned the idea of air-launching a space plane with the end of the X15 program and settled on the relatively inefficient concept of a rocket ground launch, and now 40 years later the space plane idea is being brought back by private ventures. It's about time.

--mark

PS: Richard Branson is an interesting guy, but it's not like he designed this thing. Burt Rutan is the real genius here.

__________________
'11 Triumph Tiger 800 XC / '03 Honda XR650L / '01 Triumph Bonneville cafe

My ride reports: Missile silos, Labrador, twisties, and more

Bennington Triumph Bash, June 1-3, 2012

Tbirdnz

I agree there Mark, the X-15 immediately came to mind when I saw this effort.

As much as I would like to see the Earth from space I don't think I would want to travel in Branson's ship from this launch.


-------------
Ride on !