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.
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
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.
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
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