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Stratolaunch, the giant aircraft designed to lift rockets into the stratosphere for drop-and-launch has been rolled out for the first time.
The initial construction on the massive plane Paul Allen has been quietly building in the California desert is complete, and the vehicle, which would be the world's largest plane with a wingspan wider than Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, was wheeled out of its hangar for the first time on Wednesday.
[...] But why is Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the Seattle Seahawks, building such a massive plane? It's not to carry passengers, but rather rockets. The bigger the plane, the larger the rockets, or the greater the number.
Allen's Stratolaunch company has partnered with Orbital ATK to "air launch" the company's Pegasus XL, a rocket capable of delivering small satellites, weighing as much as 1000 pounds, to orbit. The rockets would be tethered to the belly of the giant plane, which would fly them aloft, and once at an altitude of 35,000 feet or so, the rockets would drop and "air launch" to space.
"With airport-style operations and quick turn-around capabilities," the company said it believes "air launch" is a cheaper and more efficient way to get satellites into space than rockets that launch vertically and can be extraordinarily expensive.
See also:
The Register
Ars Technica (pictures)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 01 2017, @11:48PM (10 children)
I guess it must be cheap, but not super future-proof (or quiet), to be using 6 747-class engines.
Which not use more current big/efficient/powerful engines like the giants from the B777/B787/A380/A350 ?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 01 2017, @11:51PM
s/which/why (obviously)
(Score: 3, Informative) by deadstick on Friday June 02 2017, @12:17AM
Money. This airplane is not going to rack up the huge number of operating hours an airliner does; it will be worn out or obsolete before modern engines would even begin to depreciate. Likewise, its noise signature - while high - will be infrequent, localized and brief.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday June 02 2017, @12:25AM
Cost
"The CF6 engine has a list price of about $11 million (from an A330 order in 2009, higher thrust version; $12.2 million in 2015 USD1)" https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/16007/what-is-the-cost-of-the-engine-boeing-747-model-400?rq=1 [stackexchange.com]
GE9X: US$ 41.4M list price (2016) http://www.gereports.com/the-art-of-engineering-the-worlds-largest-jet-engine-shows-off-composite-curves/ [gereports.com]
Even the base model GE9 is over $20 million USD
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday June 02 2017, @12:26AM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Friday June 02 2017, @01:32AM (5 children)
I can't imagine how great the stresses on that center span will be with any significant load. Its not clear where they intend to mount the load, to the fuselage or that center spar. In either case dropping that load suddenly seems like it would be a huge whip inducing event.
A few years ago there were a couple of forest fire-fighting planes that came apart after years of stress fractures. In each case the break happened just AFTER the fire retardant payload was emptied and the wing load was dramatically reduced. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYKIGT7EgSA [youtube.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mhajicek on Friday June 02 2017, @06:19AM (2 children)
The center spar is also going to undergo huge tortional loads every time the plane hits turbulence. Should have connected the tails.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @08:37AM (1 child)
They are probably not sure if they may need to carry rockets longer then their fuselage, otherwise it would had been a sane thing to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @09:30AM
Put a cross piece up high, like a greek letter pi.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @07:23AM
"A few years ago"?
The video is 4:3, 240p, looks like it's been taken with a VHS camcorder. To quote Indiana Jones: "This belongs in a museum".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 02 2017, @08:35AM
Well, to prevent that, this two-headed bird will probably have to become the world's largest dive bomber ever, separating from its load only on a zero G trajectory.