World's largest plane makes first flight over California

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 15, 2006
Messages
6,156
Location
Buffalo, NY
Reuters By Dan Whitcomb,Reuters 8 hours ago
Reactions Reblog on Tumblr Share Tweet Email

[Linked Image]

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The world's largest aircraft took off over the Mojave Desert in California on Saturday, the first flight for the carbon-composite plane built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp, started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as the company enters the lucrative private space market.

The white airplane called Roc, which has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage, took to the air shortly before 7 a.m. Pacific time (1400 GMT) and stayed aloft for more than two hours before landing safely back at the Mojave Air and Space Port as a crowd of hundreds of people cheered.

"What a fantastic first flight," Stratolaunch Chief Executive Officer Jean Floyd said in a statement posted to the company's website.

"Today's flight furthers our mission to provide a flexible alternative to ground launched systems, Floyd said. "We are incredibly proud of the Stratolaunch team, today's flight crew, our partners at Northrup Grumman's Scaled Composites and the Mojave Air and Space Port."

The plane is designed to drop rockets and other space vehicles weighing up to 500,000 pounds at an altitude of 35,000 feet and has been billed by the company as making satellite deployment as "easy as booking an airline flight."

Saturday's flight, which saw the plane reach a maximum speed of 189 miles per hour and altitudes of 17,000 feet, was meant to test its performance and handling qualities, according to Stratolaunch.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, announced in 2011 that he had formed the privately funded Stratolaunch.

The company seeks to cash in on higher demand in coming years for vessels that can put satellites in orbit, competing in the United States with other space entrepreneurs and industry stalwarts such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and United Launch Alliance - a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Stratolaunch has said that it intends to launch its first rockets from the Roc in 2020 at the earliest. Allen died in October 2018 while suffering from non-Hodgkins' lymphoma, just months after the plane's development was unveiled.

"We all know Paul would have been proud to witness today's historic achievement," said Jody Allen, Chair of Vulcan Inc and Trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust. "The aircraft is a remarkable engineering achievement and we congratulate everyone involved."

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Grant McCool)
 
That design has Burt Rutan's fingerprints all over it!

It is an interesting machine. PW 4056 engines, but six of them. Designed to carry a 500,000# external payload.

Certainly large in terms of wingspan.

The 238 foot length is long, but not the longest. The 747-8 is 250, for example. The 777-300 is 242.

Weight is hard to calculate, they're not sharing precise numbers. With the 500,000# payload, the all-up weight is 1,300,000. That suggests an airplane weight, fully loaded with fuel, of about 800,000. That's heavy. I suppose since there is a lot of structure in that wing to be able to carry the external payload.

It's unique. That's for sure.

Can't wait to see it start carrying payloads and launching them!
 
To my knowledge the one and only Antonov 225 is still chugging along. It obviously will retain the title of being the world's largest for now.
 
Just trying to understand if a 30,000 foot head start in launching rockets is beneficial enough to develop this plane, or is there a launch availability log jam.
 
Originally Posted by Danno
Just trying to understand if a 30,000 foot head start in launching rockets is beneficial enough to develop this plane, or is there a launch availability log jam.


Problem with traditional launches is that everything to get it off the ground, and up to bullet velocity is there on the launch pad, and has to carry every piece of fuel infrastructure and fuel ahead of it.

Getting stuff in the air, and at some reasonable speed is a pretty massive saving in weight and complexity.
 
What happens when the pilots in the two cockpits disagree? It looks like a Siamese red headed stepchild. What happens when the rocket engine wash hits it? Not to downplay the engineering, but it strikes me much like a Howard Hughes spruce goose project rather than a viable space launch vehicle. Call me cynical...
 
Yes ... and some pretty large spent rockets fall into the sea ... many of them use the NE corridor when launched from Florida ...
 
Originally Posted by tcp71
What happens when the pilots in the two cockpits disagree? It looks like a Siamese red headed stepchild. What happens when the rocket engine wash hits it? Not to downplay the engineering, but it strikes me much like a Howard Hughes spruce goose project rather than a viable space launch vehicle. Call me cynical...


Guess they should have consulted with you before building it!
 
Would also seem slow enough to utilize a mechanical release to drop the payload and then the payload fires post separation ... Some SRB systems require linear shaped charges to separate ...
 
I can't imagine the various twisting loads on that wing. Presumably, the computations say that the tails don't need to be tied together, P38-style, to keep the aircraft in one piece, but, man, that sure looks like it ought to fold or twist in half in crosswind landing.
 
Originally Posted by tcp71
What happens when the pilots in the two cockpits disagree? It looks like a Siamese red headed stepchild. What happens when the rocket engine wash hits it? Not to downplay the engineering, but it strikes me much like a Howard Hughes spruce goose project rather than a viable space launch vehicle. Call me cynical...


Other large airplanes have two pilots. Are you assuming that they won't be able to talk to each other?

I'm not certain how many pilots will be at the controls on this thing, but I don't see crew coordination as an issue.

The Spruce Goose was a fascinating airplane, but underpowered. With 6 4056, this airplane will have over 330,000# of thrust. About the same power/weight at max gross takeoff as a 747-400, which had good power. With the relatively straight, and very long wing, it should lift off at lower speed than the 747-400 and climb more rapidly.

The airplane is viable.

I can't comment on the business viability.

But it makes sense that getting things to orbit will be much, much cheaper if you start with speed and 90% of the Earth's atmosphere below you. The airplane cost becomes cheap compared with throw-away boosters. Even solid fuel ones.
 
Last edited:
Talk about situational awareness. There must be a camera located midship so the pilot knows they are centered.
 
There are other advantages. Rocket nozzles have an air pressure range of efficiency. A nozzle that operates at sea level loses efficiency pretty quick as the altitude rises. This nozzle can be optmized for starting at 35K feet and will have a longer bell, and even a few percent efficiency gain is a big difference in the fuel needed to reach altitude.
X about 60 to 100 seconds to reach 30K feet, but of course the velocity is way higher The first stage separates at about mach 6+_ at a much higher altitude so it has enough fuel to decelerate and re-enter the atmosphere. so they are probably saving 1/4th the fuel and fuel weight. That is HUGE.

Rod
 
The other benefit is that you don't have to wait for a launch window at your launch site, you can fly to where there's a good launch window. That could allow you to launch days earlier than otherwise.

Also, in theory, you could fly all the way to the equator before launching an equatorial satellite, which is worth a few hundred metres per second of velocity. Which could save a lot of fuel.
 
Originally Posted by john_pifer
Originally Posted by tcp71
What happens when the pilots in the two cockpits disagree? It looks like a Siamese red headed stepchild. What happens when the rocket engine wash hits it? Not to downplay the engineering, but it strikes me much like a Howard Hughes spruce goose project rather than a viable space launch vehicle. Call me cynical...


Guess they should have consulted with you before building it!


Don't be simple. Apparently only you may have opinions.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top