Northern Ireland Aviation Enthusiast's Forum
General Aviation Discussion => General Aviation Discussion => Topic started by: Airymouse on June 01, 2017, 10:15:54 PM
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Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen owns a company called Vulcan Aerospace. Vulcan Aerospace’s unit Stratolaunch Systems, just (31st May 2017)rolled out the world’s largest aircraft that will directly put satellites into orbit around the Earth much quicker and with lower costs than traditional rocket launches from the surface.
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“We’re excited to announce that Stratolaunch aircraft has reached a major milestone in its journey toward providing convenient, reliable, and routine access to low-Earth orbit,” Stratolaunch Systems Corp. CEO Jean Floyd said in a statement. “This marks the completion of the initial aircraft-construction phase and the beginning of the aircraft ground- and flight-testing phase.”
The Stratolaunch carrier plane is designed to launch rockets into orbit from an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters). Initially, the plane will carry a single Pegasus XL rocket built by Orbital ATK, but the craft will eventually be able to carry up to three of those boosters simultaneously, Floyd said – Space.com
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It certainly looks impressive.
Question is will it fly or will it turn out to be another 'Spruce Goose' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_H-4_Hercules)? :)
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They used various pieces off two retired and scrapped United Airlines 747's, some things being very visible, for example the cockpit windows, the engines and the main gear are all from the 747's. I can just imagine this thing snapping in half mid flight, I hope I'm wrong though.
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Jack Conroy would be smiling if he could see that!
Conroy Virtus proposal, mid-1970s.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Virtus_dropping_orbiter.png)
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It`s certainly different,but it also looks a bit of a rush job-I think it looks rather delicate and could fall to bits. :-\