Stratolaunch flies!
Capitalism in space: Stratolaunch’s giant two fuselage airplane Roc successfully launched on its first flight this morning.
It took off at 10 am Eastern, and as I write this the plane apparently is still in the air. Update: They have landed successfully, completing the first flight..
Below is video of the plane’s take off. This plane, the largest ever to fly, is quite impressive.
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Capitalism in space: Stratolaunch’s giant two fuselage airplane Roc successfully launched on its first flight this morning.
It took off at 10 am Eastern, and as I write this the plane apparently is still in the air. Update: They have landed successfully, completing the first flight..
Below is video of the plane’s take off. This plane, the largest ever to fly, is quite impressive.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
All I keep thinking is “Spruce Goose”. Will this be its one flight?
The Spruce Moose. ;-)
Wondering how they addressed the torsion between the two fuselages. It’s big enough that a gust could affect one side but not the other.
Andi
I have wondered about, and commented on this before.
It seems that the addition of a rear horizontal stabilizer stretching across between the 2 fuselage ends would add ENORMOUS structural strength for very little cost. I cannot imagine why this was not done.
My prediction… it will be used a couple of times to show its capability, satisfy the Allen legacy and then mothballed. Unlike the Spruce Goose it could serve a future purpose but it won’t. I’d be good with this outcome.
m d mill:
Various sources indicate that the empennage was designed as two separate units to reduce interference during rocket launch. A single stabilizer would significantly strengthen the airframe, but the aircraft flight regime isn’t especially strenuous. It will be interesting to see how the airframe responds during load tests.
I had been thinking that they did this on the spaceport’s Plane Crazy Saturday, but that is on the third Saturday of every month, not the second:
http://mojavemuseum.org/plane-crazy-saturday/
However, it turns out that they did it on the day of the Mojave Experimental Fly In:
http://mojavemuseum.org/mefi/
Ain’t as kewl as this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quetzalcoatlus
Now that it has flown, Wikipedia probably needs to update this graphic to include Stratolaunch’s Roc, built by Scaled Composites as Model 351:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_planes_comparison_-_Updated.svg