I heard the pilots in those carried these for a sidearm:
Posted on 04/13/2019 8:58:19 AM PDT by BenLurkin
[I]n the desert north of Los Angeles, a gigantic, six-engined megajet with the wingspan of an American football field flew Saturday morning for the first time.
Stratolaunch Systems, the company founded in 2011 ... conducted the first test flight of the world's largest plane.
Stratolaunch aircraft is a giant flying launch pad, designed to hurtle satellites into low Earth orbit. It aims to offer the military, private companies and even NASA itself a more economical way to get into space.
The aircraft's wingspan measures 385 feet -- wider than any airplane on the planet. From tip to tail, it's 238 feet long....
The jet, carrying a rocket loaded with a satellite, will take off from Mojave and climb to an altitude of 35,000 feet. There, pilots will launch the rocket from the plane on a trajectory toward space. The plane then will land safety back at Mojave, while the rocket carries the satellite into an orbit ranging from about 300 miles to 1,200 miles above Earth. The rocket deploys the satellite before eventually falling back to Earth, burning up in the sky like a meteor.
Putting small satellites into space via airplanes...eliminates the need for launch pads and all the pricey equipment and infrastructure surrounding a traditional rocket launch... the plane burns less fuel than a traditional rocket when it blasts off from Earth.
Bad weather won't be as much of a problem. Storms can delay a traditional rocket launch, but a jet could simply take off and fly over bad weather -- or around it -- and then launch the satellite.
Launches could take place more frequently and within a faster time frame. No more waiting in line for a slot to open up on a spacecraft blasting off from a traditional terrestrial launch pad.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
35,000 feet?
Umm, why spend money on a plane that does what other planes can do?
Another article, same topic: https://www.theverge.com/transportation/2019/4/13/18309129/stratolaunch-worlds-biggest-airplane-first-flight-rockets
https://youtu.be/qnkDuI5e-Og?t=159
One set of controls, two pilots, who are only in the right cockpit.
Plane straddles Rocket, slung on the underside of the center spar.
The military has been using the Pegasus launch system for quite a while; that's an air-launch system for getting into low-Earth orbit.
Also there's an ASAT weapon system that launches from an F-15. The concept seems to be cost-effective under some conditions.
A strong cross breeze would wreak havoc on this thing.
I heard the pilots in those carried these for a sidearm:
Technology makes it easier for the bad to be bad.
That’s amazing! I would have thought a redunancy for sure; in case the right cocpit is unable to operate, fly it from the left if the system is otherwise still oprable.
Any experienced pilot reading about this will cringe at the thought of taxiing this beast.
Assuming the cockpit is on the left side, there is a lot of hidden real estate on the right.
There is probably only one airfield in the world where it can land and turn around to taxi to the fueling/loading/maintenance area.
Which means any emergency type landing would have only one usable airfield.
Keeping the wingtips in one piece and the landing gear on the pavement would give anyone a case of nerves.
Technology makes it easier for the good to be good.
Technology has existed since Man was expelled from Eden, and Men have used it for good and evil ever since.
I’m 43, I’m former infantry. I have three tours overseas. I’ve seen technology and what it can do. I can also use map and compass and go without a phone like I used to. The trouble is all this technology and means allow those that would want to control us all to be able to do so a lot easier than without.
All these same conveniences which allow you to talk to your car or Alexa, or anything makes it far easier to bring you and yours under their thumb.
I believe it's less expensive, less dangerous, and almost weatherproof. Also, we've been doing it since Yeager broke the sound barrier.
To you and me, that's simple as hell --it comes in a flash. Who could NOT understand something so simple..? 3d turned into 2d, seen from above, dummy. You're God, sorta, looking down.
Yet it's my experience that a MIND-BLOWING number of people, especially women, cannot understand that.
If it's run by them SCREAMING, jumping up and down, or instead by civvies really slow and polite, the result is the same:
90% of people still don't get it and even many of the book-smart people somehow can't put it into practice.
Who’s in command of each side?
I agree with you. I'm by no means a Luddite, I am a firm believer in the adage that just because something can be done, doesn't necessarily mean it should be done. Technology greatly expands the limit of what is possible, and it seems it is the nature of evil to take advantage of those opportunities much more rapidly than the forces of good.
Technology from it’s beginning...control of fire, spears, bows, and then especially firearms gave the physically weaker the power to protect themselves
As the old saying goes...god made man, sam colt made them equal.
The optimal size of a rocket engine nozzle to be used within the atmosphere is achieved when the exit pressure equals ambient (atmospheric) pressure, which decreases with altitude. For rockets travelling from the Earth to orbit, a simple nozzle design is only optimal at one altitude, losing efficiency and wasting fuel at other altitudes.
By being able to launch at high altitude, they can optimize the rocket engine for operating above the atmosphere.
Yes, but the rocket is heaviest at launch, so even though 10 miles is only a fraction of the way up, one has to burn an awful lot of oxidizer in a rocket engine to get there. By using an air-breathing engine, this oxidizer, as well as the extra fuel (and oxidizer) needed to lift and accelerate it, can be dispensed with.
They need a passenger bridge between the hulls in case you wanted to change seats or got an upgrade...
Also, what if the stewardesses in hull A ran out of beer or cheese and fruit plates and hull B had a several cases left?
Your post is exactly what I thought of when I read the article!
For no good reason, a couple of weeks ago I got interested in the Twin Mustang and did the usual amount of superficial research on it. Including one guy who found one and refurbished it. He said that between the F 82 and the Mustang that there are about 14 parts that are the same. And over 10,000 that are different.. they share practically zero Parts in common.
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