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#11
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
"Mary Shafer" wrote in message
... Er, they may well have had, but they never flew anywhere near that fast. When discussing aircraft, like other vehicles, it's important to keep actual and predicted number separate. Sorry. I was under the impression they had. -Kim- |
#12
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
Jim Kingdon wrote in message ...
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tiero...ews/121703.htm Not only did they break the sound barrier, but they did some tests of the inflight reconfiguration (is there a less awkward term? Maybe not, since I'm not particularly aware of other aircraft that have a similar capability): I suggest the term 'tailbrake,' or 'tailbraking' to describe the braking effect of the high drag configuration, (also it's alliterative with 'tail break' to describe the what's visually happening to the craft's shape). Tom Merkle |
#13
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
Jim Kingdon wrote in message ...
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tiero...ews/121703.htm Woohoo! Great day! So, Rutan has won the silver, will he now go for the gold? If I'm not reading too much into http://www.xprize.org/papers/XPupdate_1203.pdf (page 2), that would appear to be 6-9 months off. 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. I'm interested at how much wider the spread is in current capabilities of the different teams. When Lindberg actually took off from Long Island, his closest competitor expected to take off a couple of days later. Tom Merkle |
#14
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
Jim Kingdon wrote:
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tiero...ews/121703.htm Not only did they break the sound barrier, but they did some tests of the inflight reconfiguration (is there a less awkward term? Maybe not, since I'm not particularly aware of other aircraft that have a similar capability): He then configured the ship in its high-drag "feathered" shape to simulate the condition it will experience when it enters the atmosphere after a space flight. . . . After descending in feathered flight for about a minute, Brian reconfigured the ship to its conventional glider shape and flew a 12-minute glide to landing at Scaled's home airport of Mojave. Hard to believe this is the first small company supersonic aircraft, but I can't think of a counterexample. That's one of Burt's talking points, actually -- that whereas the first 12 years after Kittyhawk saw explosive growth internationally in aviation innovation, what's happened in aerospace has been retrenchment and total lack of a "possibility space" for innovation. The Russians and Americans have figured bigger is better and never mind new designs. Burt wants the little guy involved or, should I say, thousands of little guys. At EAA Airventure in Oshkosh last summer he said he'd like to fly into space at Oshkosh and return *during* the afternoon air show. I'm hoping that signals a live possibility for the 1st year of the second century of powered flight! Will I be at Oshkosh next summer? hehe. - Scott |
#15
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
On Thu, 18 Dec 2003 19:00:13 -0800 (PST), "Kim Keller"
wrote: "Mary Shafer" wrote in message ... Er, they may well have had, but they never flew anywhere near that fast. When discussing aircraft, like other vehicles, it's important to keep actual and predicted number separate. Sorry. I was under the impression they had. Don't be sorry. You thought exactly what they wanted you to think and they were very clever about it. I'm not sure, and the SETP proceedings are still boxed up so I can't check, that the BD-10 ever got above Mach 0.8 or so. At first it was an engine-inlet problem but I think it turned into a aerodynamic problem (predicted thrust not being enough, meaning the engine didn't meet spec or drag was much higher than expected). Now, this is all by memory and is probably seriously wrong here and there, so don't believe the details, just the general outline. Bede sold off the BD-10, subsequent owners didn't have any more success going over Mach 1, at least two prototypes crashed and killed the pilot (who was the owner, I think), and, maybe, the BD-10 has lost enough momentum that's it's over. Mary -- Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer |
#17
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
Scott Marquardt wrote in message ...
Hard to believe this is the first small company supersonic aircraft, but I can't think of a counterexample. That's one of Burt's talking points, actually -- that whereas the first 12 years after Kittyhawk saw explosive growth internationally in aviation innovation, what's happened in aerospace has been retrenchment and total lack of a "possibility space" for innovation. The Russians and Americans have figured bigger is better and never mind new designs. Burt wants the little guy involved or, should I say, thousands of little guys. Yeah, but the same thing happened with cars, railroads, ironworks, computers--the list goes on. Eventually infant industries mature to the point where the basics are already settled upon and every new company starts looking like the old ones--so it takes a significant change in the industry (for cars, it was the Japanese car companies) before you begin to see innovation again--and even then the little guys will fail more often than they succeed. Remember Delorean? Tom Merkle |
#18
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
In article , Tom Merkle wrote:
Jim Kingdon wrote in message ... http://www.scaled.com/projects/tiero...ews/121703.htm Not only did they break the sound barrier, but they did some tests of the inflight reconfiguration (is there a less awkward term? Maybe not, since I'm not particularly aware of other aircraft that have a similar capability): I suggest the term 'tailbrake,' or 'tailbraking' to describe the braking effect of the high drag configuration, (also it's alliterative with 'tail break' to describe the what's visually happening to the craft's shape). I vaguely recall seeing "shuttlecocking" somewhere, which is nice, although it's a bit unwieldy. (it also conjures up images of a *huge* racquet about to smack them back into the stratosphere g) -- -Andrew Gray |
#19
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
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.) -- MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. | |
#20
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SpaceShipOne Busts Sound Barrier
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