Posted on 11/15/2005 6:36:24 PM PST by KevinDavis
Virgin Galactic still has major design decisions to make for the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital craft, which is planned to enter service in 2008 carrying seven tourists and two pilots.
The Virgin Group company says SS2 will have wing spoilers and a redesigned hybrid rocket engine, but solutions to subsonic wing flutter and g loading are still being sought.
The UK company wants to find a way of reducing the 5g that the Scaled Composites-designed SS2 will experience during re-entry and is working with NASA and Qinetiq to achieve that.
The addition of wing spoilers will improve handling at lower speeds, while subsonic flutter must be resolved to stop it undermining SS2’s structural strength. A new hybrid rocket is needed because SpaceShipOne’s (SS1) engine had low- and high-frequency combustion instability.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightinternational.com ...
I'm hoping they stick with Spacedev for the hybrid rocket motor.
Hope so too.. It seems that spacedev is the way to go...
Yahoo discussion group for Spacedev
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/spacedev/
Contressman Pete Sessions was in attendance as was a Mr Attenborough (sic) of Virgin Galactic. I asked him whether they would conduct some of their passenger flights from the DFW area once they are operational. He seemed interested.
I also met a man who has already put the down payment on his flight on Virgin Galactic and he is really interested about his place on the manifest. It seems that there may be a lottery for the first few flights.
Go Burt Go!
Why?
I think they'd be better off with a liquid engine from XCOR. Hybrids are expensive to turn around, and they don't contribute that much toward future operational rocketplanes.
There is another vendor for the type of engine used in Rutan's design.
Liquid fuel engines are probably heavier, or Rutan would have used them. He does freely admit to not being an engine designer though. :')
This type of hybrid amounts to a switchable, throttle-able solid fuel booster, and is a very safe design. It's important not to fry the paying customers. ;')
One of the areas of problems named above is that the nice, lightweight composites used to build the craft can't be scaled up without unacceptable risk. Bummer.
Static Test of Hydrogen Peroxide Kerosene Motor (Robert Compton)
http://www.ad6uy.com/sac-l5/motor-test.html
Liquid Propellant engines:
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/liquid-propellant_rocket_engine.html
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