[ÆX]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/10/04/spaceshipone.attempt.cnn/index.html

i watch the discovery channel special last night. it was sooooo awsome!

my brother works with a man who has a test pad in mohave for the one of the jets they use to shoots SSO in to space.

long live the privateer!

 

[Evel Monkey]

Very cool.

But is it still a "privateer" effort being back by the 3rd richest man in the US?

 

[ÆX]

Very cool.

But is it still a "privateer" effort being back by the 3rd richest man in the US?

they didn't have his help till now.

scaled composites have some 20 employees. guys out of school
making a airplane to go to space, and doing a better job then the
whole world with 1/10 the cost!


knowing what it takes to make the aircrafts they did, i think they RULE!

 

[Evel Monkey]

knowing what it takes to make the aircrafts they did, i think they RULE!

True.

 

[Repack]

That show was sweet last night! It was like American Chopper meets Battlestar Galactice. I almost crapped myself when they said that SS1 was the first private aircraft to break the speed of sound, and the first super-sonic aircraft to use manual flight controls sine the X-1 in 194x. 1947 maybe? And it did it all with a brand new guidance system built by one of the test pilots.
Sure it was funded by one of the worlds richest people, but I am willing to bet that NASA would have spent at least 100x what Paul Allen spent and probably not succeeded.

 

[ÆX]

there was one test flight, the first one to actually get in space, where
as he was going up, his navacation flickered then went off and he didn't abort.
WOW, that was exciting.
the onboard camera caught him hyperventalating like mad! he didn't know if he was going to make it back.
O, the joys of being a test pilot!

 

[blue]

I almost crapped myself when they said that SS1 was the first private aircraft to break the speed of sound

Concord.

 

[Zark]

Concord.

Kinda, the British and French governments were both involved with the Concord, its sort of a stretch to call that private.

 

[Skookum]

This was a great program. Very very cool to see space flight being taken on by the private class. Seems like nobody cares about space so much, maybe we see so many movies we think we're farther along in exploration than we really are.... i personally hope that i could ride my mt. bike on the moon someday before i die. Paul Allen is the coolest rich dude of all time.

 

[dhtahoe]

The Rutan's build some crazy aircraft. This is an Asymetrical Twin that he built for himself that overcomes the torque of it's engines and props thru asymetrical aerodynamics.

 

[Toshi]

http://www.air-and-space.com/SpaceShipOne.htm

this above page makes me really want to be rich and own a plane . seriously. (that the page itself is really ugly isn't the point even tho the fixed Golera Air & Space Museum background makes my eyes bleed)

 

[2piece]

That should be juuuust enough to cover R&D and all the other cost associated with the attempt

 

[ummbikes]

They said on NPR on the drive home that Allen mentioned the $10 million would partially offset the cost of making it happen. Still cool as heck and I applaude the effort.

 

[lovebunny]

burt rutan is a god in the aerospace industry. he designed the 1st plane to travel roundthe world w/ out refueling. i did a reporet on him once. hes a genius.

 

[wirly]

One of my riding buddies is a machinist for the company that builds the solid fuel rocket motors for that "plane". He has some coasters they made out of the solid fuel (basically just rubber). Funny to be protecting your table from rings with rocket fuel.

 

[Repack]

Concord.

Government funded. France = ~socialist.

 

[Repack]

They said on NPR on the drive home that Allen mentioned the $10 million would partially offset the cost of making it happen. Still cool as heck and I applaude the effort.

Somehow, I doubt he is worried. He isn't that far behind Bill Gates in terms of $. Billy is worth like $48B right now. If Johny boy is worth even a mere $36.5B, that would mean it would take him 10 years to be broke if he were burning $10M per day.

WHERE THE F* IS MY CUT???