SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier

(Henry Spencer) wrote in message ...
In article ,
Tom Merkle wrote:
Of course if another group looked anywhere near, I'm sure they could
speed it up. But right now they're all alone on the playing field.
...When Lindberg actually took off from Long
Island, his closest competitor expected to take off a couple of days
later.

As Peter Diamandis commented at last year's Space Access, "it's not over
until somebody wins". The odds-on favorite for the Orteig Prize was
Admiral Byrd, who sank $100k+ into his entry, back when that was a massive
amount of money... and crashed on takeoff and was out of the race.

Rutan is *not* alone on the playing field. He's farther into his
development program than most of his competitors, but he's also got a
rather complex vehicle that needs a longer development program before it's
ready to try for the prize. (He's already had one landing accident; all
it takes is a slightly worse one to put him way behind.)

That may be, but right now he's the only one with the vehicle in the
air. Since the air is the playing field, that puts him alone on it.
Personally I'm still rooting for Armadillo, but I know a spade when I
see one.

Tom Merkle

(Kaido Kert) :

(Henry Spencer) wrote in message
...
In article ,
Tom Merkle wrote:
Of course if another group looked anywhere near, I'm sure they could
speed it up. But right now they're all alone on the playing field.
...When Lindberg actually took off from Long
Island, his closest competitor expected to take off a couple of days
later.

As Peter Diamandis commented at last year's Space Access, "it's not over
until somebody wins". The odds-on favorite for the Orteig Prize was
Admiral Byrd, who sank $100k+ into his entry, back when that was a
massive
amount of money... and crashed on takeoff and was out of the race.

Rutan is *not* alone on the playing field. He's farther into his
development program than most of his competitors, but he's also got a
rather complex vehicle that needs a longer development program before
it's
ready to try for the prize. (He's already had one landing accident; all
it takes is a slightly worse one to put him way behind.)
Which is intriguing. Does he have SpaceShipTwo standing by somewhere
in the hangar, or did he really go with just one flight test article ?
That has been the stumbling block of many past development programs.
Armadillo, for instance, has stated that they could build another
vehicle in couple of weeks from scratch and are comfortable with
crashing at least one vehicle in testings. According to their latest
update they have made some preparations already, i.e. ordered a new,
bigger tank.

Armadillo can make a new unit fast because 90% plus of the parts are just of
the shelf items that anyone can re-order as long as they have money. Butan
on the otherhand has all the manufactoring equipment needed and very very
likely has all the molds used to made SS1 in storage. In that case it again
will just take weeks to build a new unit. The majors delays would be the
lead time on items like the turbines used, and the careful checkout/debugging
that any pilot is going demand before putting thier life on the line.

Earl Colby Pottinger

PS. Rutan has kept thing hush-hush before, if there already is another SS
built we will probably never know before he wants us to.

--
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(Henry Spencer) wrote in message ...

As Peter Diamandis commented at last year's Space Access, "it's not over
until somebody wins". The odds-on favorite for the Orteig Prize was
Admiral Byrd, who sank $100k+ into his entry, back when that was a massive
amount of money... and crashed on takeoff and was out of the race.

Rutan is *not* alone on the playing field. He's farther into his
development program than most of his competitors, but he's also got a
rather complex vehicle that needs a longer development program before it's
ready to try for the prize. (He's already had one landing accident; all
it takes is a slightly worse one to put him way behind.)

Having not seen anything about it in the online press, have there been
any rumors about a second SS1? It would make sense, it seems, for
Scaled to have another unit partially constructed. Baring the cost, of
course.