On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.
Is it cracked or not? On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.
Though the above article is very vague about what is being done, this article explains that they are doing taxi tests of new landing gear. The timing, however, makes me suspect that this is also a public relations ploy to counter yesterday’s reports about cracks in the vehicle’s wings.
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Is it cracked or not? On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.
Though the above article is very vague about what is being done, this article explains that they are doing taxi tests of new landing gear. The timing, however, makes me suspect that this is also a public relations ploy to counter yesterday’s reports about cracks in the vehicle’s wings.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
One has to wonder why Scaled composites would turn over the aircraft to Virgin with known issues, almost like they are washing their hands of the whole thing.
More baffling is this: Why would Virgin Galactic accept the aircraft with known problems?
The whole situation is puzzling.
The article says they are testing new brakes since all the old ones tested caused trouble with the plane.
This doesn’t sound like a brake problem at all. The brakes that planes use have been around since the 1950’s. Its the basis for automobile disk brakes.
What it sounds like is something is happening to the plane when the brakes are used. Like when landing.
I bet the whole of the landing gear structure is causing all the cracks we are hearing about. I am guessing but I wonder if they have added an anti skid brake system to it in hopes that it will keep any extra stress and vibration out.
It all might have something to do with the fact that the brakes are made and tuned for when the extra weight of the space craft is added in but when its not connected I bet the brakes lock up real hard and vibrate and bounce that craft around quite a bit on landing. Possibly causing cracks.
If anyone has ever hauled anything on a trailer with brakes before I bet you have noticed what happens when you turn the trailer brakes up all the way and you have no load on the trailer. It locks up the wheels as soon as you hit the brakes and bounces the trailer around.
If Virgins right and its just surface glue splitting, its not much past cosmetic. If the spar itself had cracks. They’ll need to replace the wing.