Blackstar?

In article ,
Brian Thorn wrote:
While the CIA is pretending it doesn't exist, Burt Rutan is spending a
fortune trying to build something like it but with far less capability

You can bet your booties that he's spending a *much* smaller fortune than
the one that was spent building this boondoggle. Note that *he's* not
starting by trying to build a hypersonic carrier aircraft... This thing
must have cost billions.

It might explain some of DoD's aversion to attempts to sell them on
reusable launchers. Just like X-33: "We spent billions doing this in the
most screwed-up way we possibly could, and it didn't work worth a damn, so
your proposal can't work either."
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

"Damon Hill" wrote in message
31...
Mary Pegg wrote in
:

What do the fine minds of ssh make of this?

http://aviationnow.com/avnow/news/ch...id=news/030606
p1.xml [Blackstar: a super-secret two stage to orbit military
spacecraft]

It occurs to me that any orbital flight, or significant sub-orbital
one, is likely to set off alarm bells in Moscow and / or Beijing. So
what's in it for *them* to keep quiet about it?


Good point. Or Paris, Tokyo, and Heavens Above.

Al

Mary Pegg wrote:

What do the fine minds of ssh make of this?

http://aviationnow.com/avnow/news/ch...s/030606p1.xml
[Blackstar: a super-secret two stage to orbit military spacecraft]

It occurs to me that any orbital flight, or significant sub-orbital one,
is likely to set off alarm bells in Moscow and / or Beijing. So what's
in it for *them* to keep quiet about it?


A lot of the military TAV designs from that period incorporated stealth
design features, so that the orbital part might not show up on radar.
Have a gander at the flat-plate stealth design used on the general
Dynamics Hypersonic Glide Vehicle of 1987:
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/hgv.htm
Lockheed, as stealth pioneers, would know how to incorporate it into the
orbiter.
What's interesting here is why this is being leaked. AW&ST wouldn't do
this on their own, as they could either look like fools if it's all
hokum, or head off to prison for many years if it really is a top secret
program.
Somebody has a vested interest in keeping this program going; and in my
opinion the usual suspects would be.
1.) The Air Force, trying to get its foot in the manned military space
door as it has been striving for for around 50 years.
2.) Somebody who wants to kill the Shuttle and replace it with this.
Like NASA.
3.) Aerospace interests who are making a lot off of this program.
Anyway, by revealing this, a whole lot of cans of worms just got opened.
Where did the funding come from? Was the money all accounted for
properly? If this existed, then what was the whole X-33 debacle about?
If they have a new super fuel, then why are we using LH2 in our EELVs?
Why wasn't one of these sent up to have a gander at Columbia and rescue
its crew if damage was evident?
This should be fun.

Pat

Damon Hill wrote:

Heck, I dunno; I just want to believe it's real. It would explain
some odd sightings.



Including the "donuts-on-a-rope" contrails sighted over Texas that were
associated with radio traffic between something called "Gas pipe" and
"Dark Star".

Pat

OM wrote:

On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 01:42:08 +1100, "BlagooBlanaa"
wrote:



so when is scaled composites going to be sued for patent violations?



...Who cares? What I want to know is when Lowther's going to release
the resin kit :-P



Stick the top parasite section on the bottom of the B-70 clone carrier
and Testors already it did years ago:
http://solmodel.co.kr/shop/data/148/ITA034_2.jpg
http://www.pawel.nieborek.pl/grafika/poz_30.jpg
http://wave.prohosting.com/aurora85/images/sr75.jpg

Pat

OM

Henry Spencer wrote:

You can bet your booties that he's spending a *much* smaller fortune than
the one that was spent building this boondoggle. Note that *he's* not
starting by trying to build a hypersonic carrier aircraft... This thing
must have cost billions.



Oh, that's without a doubt. What they seem to have made is to some
extent an American clone of the Soviet Spiral 50/50 project but upgraded
to the point where it doesn't need the seperate booster for the OSP.


It might explain some of DoD's aversion to attempts to sell them on
reusable launchers. Just like X-33: "We spent billions doing this in the
most screwed-up way we possibly could, and it didn't work worth a damn, so
your proposal can't work either."


If it can do what the article says it can (and actually exists) then
it's quite a technological triumph- sort of small-scale version of Max
Faget's shuttle brought to life with the added advantage of horizontal
takeoff and landing for the booster stage from conventional airfields.
As an economical way to take crews to the ISS this probably has the
Shuttle or Stick/CEV beat all to hell.

Pat

On Mon, 6 Mar 2006 15:52:55 -0600, Pat Flannery wrote
(in article ):

Damon Hill wrote:

Heck, I dunno; I just want to believe it's real. It would explain
some odd sightings.



Including the "donuts-on-a-rope" contrails sighted over Texas that were
associated with radio traffic between something called "Gas pipe" and "Dark
Star".

Pat

There have actually been donuts-on-a-rope contrail sightings going back
a long while, not just the incident you mention. I'm not sure they're
the same thing as this 'un. Of course, there's been enough money
spewed down the black hole of black funding for long enough that pretty
much anything is possible.

--
Herb

"Everything is controlled by a small evil group to which,
unfortunately, no one we know belongs."
~Anonymous

On 6 Mar 2006 14:24:58 -0800, wrote:

Since the carrier aircraft is supposed to be derived from the B-70...
it'd be a dandy time for some synergy. Put together a 1/144 B-70, then
modify it for this role.

....What I haven't figured out is why you haven't done an HL-10 for one
of the better B-52 kits, complete with mounting point *and* Steve
Austin in pressure suit figure.

OM
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On Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:43:33 -0600, Pat Flannery
wrote:

Speaking of rumors- way back during the SALT II talks, one of the Soviet
negotiators was supposed to have dropped a satellite picture of three
big B-70 looking aircraft lined up at a air base in front of one of our
negotiators.

....One of the excuses the Soviets were given was that these were the
surviving XB-70 and two test fit mockups that were being prepped for
the NASM.

OM
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] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[

My reaction to the article was "You gotta be kidding." We're talking
about a major leap in space technology and capability which apparently
had no influence whatever on conflicts, operations, or doctrine while
it was supposedly in service. Add to that that we have exactly one
named witness, no photos, no documents, no budget trail, and no leaks
while billions of dollars and thousands of workers were involved...
AvWeek has destoryed its credibility with this, and God alone knows
why.

Matt Bille
ALL POSTS ARE SOLELY THE PERSONAL OPINION OF THE AUTHOR