Comments on: Virgin Galactic’s Unity makes second powered flight

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 31 May 2018 23:53:53 +0000

I suspect that Col Beausabre understands that this is a developmental test that is a step in the direction of what SpaceShipOne already has done. They are checking out SpaceShipTwo’s performance and are working their way to a full mission profile. The wiggle that pzatchok noticed could be part of the test plan (testing out control), or it could be an unexpected performance issue. SpaceShipOne had a worse case of unexpected spinning roll on one of its flights.

Second flight to space, first of two X-Prize flights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXNkUNP75-Q (10 minutes, unexpected roll begins at 1 minute into powered flight)

By: wodun

wodun — Thu, 31 May 2018 08:25:27 +0000

So, they’ve gotten to where the Bell X-2 was in the mid Fifties (and, to be fair, credit to Boeing for the B-50 carrier aircraft)

But are they doing it now?

I understand what you are getting at but just because something was done in the past doesn’t mean doing it now is no big deal.

For example: what about when we land on the Moon again? Sure we did it in the past but we haven’t in decades and the technology that will allow us to do so now, will be far more advanced that what we used before.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Thu, 31 May 2018 04:55:21 +0000

Watch the craft under power/

It does not look stable. It was wiggling all over the place.

By: Edward

Edward — Wed, 30 May 2018 23:55:07 +0000

Col Beausabre wrote: “Richard Branson, more hat than cattle”

Hopefully Branson’s herd will grow larger than his hat.

By: Col Beausabre

Col Beausabre — Wed, 30 May 2018 17:14:25 +0000

So, they’ve gotten to where the Bell X-2 was in the mid Fifties (and, to be fair, credit to Boeing for the B-50 carrier aircraft)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Bell+X-2+for+FSX&&view=detail&mid=6CA44ABAF027800F52BC6CA44ABAF027800F52BC&&FORM=VDRVRV

To use an expression from my dad’s home state, “Richard Branson, more hat than cattle”)