In article ,
says...

Jeff Findley wrote on Thu, 6 Jun 2019
18:09:04 -0400:

In article , says...

On 6/6/2019 2:02 PM, Greg (Strider) Moore wrote:
"David Spain"* wrote in message ...

From Spruce Goose to Composite Condor...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...19189632956681



Sigh. Thanks Greg. I'd laugh, but it's just way too familiar and way too
sad....

Paul Allen was somehow sold on air launch (likely Rutan sold him on the
idea) and he decided to build Birdzillia. Unfortunately, there was a
complete lack of focus on what it was going to launch! The assumption
was that a partner would be easy to find who would foot the bill for the
launch vehicle development. That was, in hindsight, obviously misguided
thinking.


Not that misguided. First, they started out to develop their own
launch vehicles so they weren't engaging in the "complete lack of
focus" that you decry. Second, didn't they have a launch contract
with NG (was OSC (was ATK)) to launch Pegasus XL from it?

First they were to partner with SpaceX to develop the launch vehicle.
But that partnership ended in 2012, so they were left without a launch
vehicle plan at that point.

Second, they went to Orbital ATK as a partner who was supposed to
develop a Pegasus II (bigger, obviously, than the original). That
didn't work out very well either.

The third launch vehicle planned to be launched was Pegauss/Pegasus XL.
But that's kind of like flying a Boeing 747 from NYC to DC with only 50
passengers on the plane. There would have been zero advantage to flying
Pegasus from this aircraft compared to the L-1011. They said something
about flying three of them at once, but even that makes no sense given
the current (very low) flight rate of Pegasus.


Again, they never worked on developing their own launch vehicle. They
were relying on partnerships that never worked out.

Jeff
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