David Spain wrote:
SarK0Y wrote:
vg Just has wasted Time & Nothing more. their
scheme is about to be ridiculously unreliable + costly: feathers have
big chance to fail!


YOU'RE WRONG! (or are you dropping those feathers in a vacuum?) :-D

OK on a more serious note.

There are a lot of components on an aircraft that failure on approach can lead
to disaster as well. I lump the 'feathering' approach on SpaceShip I - II in
that category.

With only a few powered flights of SS-I and no powered ones on SS-II yet:

http://www.spaceshiptwo.net/press.html

but 7 solos according to the above, we can't really pass judgment on its
operational reliability. It's not in operation yet. We can say it has been
successfully recovered 7 times in 7 non-powered flight tests including at
least one 'feathered' test drop.

Again if this scheme was so awful why didn't the Canadian Arrow win the
X-Prize? If it was too costly, why did Canadian Arrow bow out of the space
tourism business?

Even something as simple as a parachute can get tangled. There are always
risks. The VG waiver of liability you'll have to sign to take the flight will
spell it all out for you I'm sure.

Dave