Any other eccentric billionaire out there who doesn't have a space venture yet?
They're all the rage I hear.

Francoflier wrote:

Any other eccentric billionaire out there who doesn't have a space venture yet?
They're all the rage I hear.

Maybe Branson’s in need of something new and shiny that he can paint a half-naked woman onto...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spac ... RsYm6MgjPw


Is this the end?

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

QuarkFly wrote:

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

Apparently the company is continuing on. Looks shaky however.

What are parts like engines worth? Could it be broken up? Might be the economical solution. No museum will be able to fit it.

Perhaps just cut up a nose section for preservation.

cpd wrote:

QuarkFly wrote:

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

Apparently the company is continuing on. Looks shaky however.

What are parts like engines worth? Could it be broken up? Might be the economical solution. No museum will be able to fit it.

Perhaps just cut up a nose section for preservation.

The engines were selected for minimal cost. They were bought off scrapped 747s. PW4000s go for less than CF6s typically.

I'm a fan of the concept of air launched rockets.

Lightsaber

cpd wrote:

QuarkFly wrote:

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

No museum will be able to fit it.

Pima should be able to get it in full to the outskirts of the property, at least to around its southeast corner after landing next-door at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (13,600' x 200' runway)...Might just need to grade their dirt taxiway from the base a little wider to accommodate (how hard is it to grade desert?) and temporarily relocate a fence or two.

lightsaber wrote:

cpd wrote:

QuarkFly wrote:

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

Apparently the company is continuing on. Looks shaky however.

What are parts like engines worth? Could it be broken up? Might be the economical solution. No museum will be able to fit it.

Perhaps just cut up a nose section for preservation.

The engines were selected for minimal cost. They were bought off scrapped 747s. PW4000s go for less than CF6s typically.

I'm a fan of the concept of air launched rockets.

So the thing is effectively worthless aside from being part of a launch system.

We've seen those concepts before - even the XB-70 was mooted at one point to launch an orbital vehicle. The humble 747 was proposed as a launch vehicle for an ICBM (as was the C5 Galaxy) and the AN-225 was to launch the enormous HOTOL vehicle in flight. Boeing also developed another TSTO system.

One of the Boeing proposals in that line would carry just over 50 tonnes of JP4 and 129 tonnes of cryogenic fuel. The thing was nearly as heavy as a 747 - and that was just the carrier plane, not including the vehicle it would carry to launch. It would have been an extremely impressive ride from takeoff to launch altitude, the profile of that was truly extreme.

One of the other derivatives in that program had a front fuselage section that looks strangely similar to one front fuselage section on the Stratolaunch plane...

lightsaber wrote:

cpd wrote:

QuarkFly wrote:

Interesting aircraft, but even if Paul Allen were still with us -- this Stratolaunch concept would have gone nowhere. Air launched satellite boosters have proved both technically and economically infeasible...

...Sorry Pegasus, you will be gone soon too, Pegasus worked, but also should never have been built -- but thanks for keeping a L-1011 in the air for a while longer !!

Wonder what museum this Stratolaunch aircraft will end up at ??

Apparently the company is continuing on. Looks shaky however.

What are parts like engines worth? Could it be broken up? Might be the economical solution. No museum will be able to fit it.

Perhaps just cut up a nose section for preservation.

The engines were selected for minimal cost. They were bought off scrapped 747s. PW4000s go for less than CF6s typically.

I'm a fan of the concept of air launched rockets.

Lightsaber

My hunch is that, if Stratolaunch shutdown and wind-down happens, Northrop Grumman is a perfect new home for the Roc/Carrier aircraft.
They designed it, they know it better than anyone else (Stratolaunch company included).
If they persist with Pegasus program, they need to think about successor to the L-1011. Come on, we all love the plane, and are happy that there is at least one example operational -- but still, it's a converted airliner, with engines that are a subtype of RB211 that no-one else uses, and a spare parts pool that's shrinking by the day.

While Roc is in itself a unique design, if NG/Scaled Composites did their job well -- then it should be inherently a simple inexpensive design (rather than a passenger airliner that was a pinnacle of advancement for its time), benefiting from existing supply chains in the industry.

Vulcan has put Stratolaunch up for sale with an asking price of USD 400 million. This includes the airframe, intellectual property and facilities.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech ... aul-allen/

Sad. I vote for museum, a new museum with a cheap hangar to house this wonderful piece of engineering. I'm sure it would draw a lot of people. But no, not at 400M...

Stitch wrote:

Vulcan has put Stratolaunch up for sale with an asking price of USD 400 million. This includes the airframe, intellectual property and facilities.

I guess it’s because of me...

Some years ago I, when working abroad and separated from my family I invested much time in the A380-production-threads... production will end in two years.

Then, about three years ago, I thought we need a thread for this large aircraft and started this thread... and now this.

From now on I will refrain from posting in threads about large aircraft... I will concentrate on Cessnas and Pipers...

But seriously, 400 million USD sounds like a bargain. Does anybody know how much they had invested so far in Stratolaunch?

AirlineCritic wrote:

Sad. I vote for museum, a new museum with a cheap hangar to house this wonderful piece of engineering. I'm sure it would draw a lot of people. But no, not at 400M...

How is two old 747s hacked together and without any useful function, "a wonderful piece of engineering"?

Spar wrote:

AirlineCritic wrote:

Sad. I vote for museum, a new museum with a cheap hangar to house this wonderful piece of engineering. I'm sure it would draw a lot of people. But no, not at 400M...

How is two old 747s hacked together and without any useful function, "a wonderful piece of engineering"?

It seems most likely to be broken up. It’s worthless by the sound of it, too large to display anywhere and And it never did what it was intended to do.

[twoid][/twoid]

Spar wrote:

AirlineCritic wrote:

Sad. I vote for museum, a new museum with a cheap hangar to house this wonderful piece of engineering. I'm sure it would draw a lot of people. But no, not at 400M...

How is two old 747s hacked together and without any useful function, "a wonderful piece of engineering"?

That’s not what it is, it uses salvaged 747 systems but the fuselage is largely bespoke and carbon fiber. This should be obvious after looking at it for about two seconds, which I therefore ask what have you been looking at?

So not only is there significant money sunk into the project, apparently to honor the wishes of a guy already dead (great resource prioritization there) but it’ll be complicated and expensive to scrap.

With all the talk of low-cost launch by the government or other private corporations you’d think this thing would find some buyer but the fact that it has not implies the concept of an airborne conventional fixed-wing as a first stage is deeply flawed, and that Paul Allen wasted immense resources in life and in death.

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

[twoid][/twoid]

Spar wrote:

AirlineCritic wrote:

Sad. I vote for museum, a new museum with a cheap hangar to house this wonderful piece of engineering. I'm sure it would draw a lot of people. But no, not at 400M...

How is two old 747s hacked together and without any useful function, "a wonderful piece of engineering"?

That’s not what it is, it uses salvaged 747 systems but the fuselage is largely bespoke and carbon fiber. This should be obvious after looking at it for about two seconds, which I therefore ask what have you been looking at?

So not only is there significant money sunk into the project, apparently to honor the wishes of a guy already dead (great resource prioritization there) but it’ll be complicated and expensive to scrap.

With all the talk of low-cost launch by the government or other private corporations you’d think this thing would find some buyer but the fact that it has not implies the concept of an airborne conventional fixed-wing as a first stage is deeply flawed, and that Paul Allen wasted immense resources in life and in death.

I think you could put it to good use by carving it up into about 10 million ice hockey sticks. It would be a decent way to recycle it.

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

[twoid][/twoid]

Spar wrote:

How is two old 747s hacked together and without any useful function, "a wonderful piece of engineering"?

That’s not what it is, it uses salvaged 747 systems but the fuselage is largely bespoke and carbon fiber. This should be obvious after looking at it for about two seconds, which I therefore ask what have you been looking at?

So not only is there significant money sunk into the project, apparently to honor the wishes of a guy already dead (great resource prioritization there) but it’ll be complicated and expensive to scrap.

With all the talk of low-cost launch by the government or other private corporations you’d think this thing would find some buyer but the fact that it has not implies the concept of an airborne conventional fixed-wing as a first stage is deeply flawed, and that Paul Allen wasted immense resources in life and in death.

I think you could put it to good use by carving it up into about 10 million ice hockey sticks. It would be a decent way to recycle it.

Doesn’t work that way but hey it at least matches the technical expertise of who we “elected” “President”.

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

[twoid][/twoid]

That’s not what it is, it uses salvaged 747 systems but the fuselage is largely bespoke and carbon fiber. This should be obvious after looking at it for about two seconds, which I therefore ask what have you been looking at?

So not only is there significant money sunk into the project, apparently to honor the wishes of a guy already dead (great resource prioritization there) but it’ll be complicated and expensive to scrap.

With all the talk of low-cost launch by the government or other private corporations you’d think this thing would find some buyer but the fact that it has not implies the concept of an airborne conventional fixed-wing as a first stage is deeply flawed, and that Paul Allen wasted immense resources in life and in death.

I think you could put it to good use by carving it up into about 10 million ice hockey sticks. It would be a decent way to recycle it.

Doesn’t work that way but hey it at least matches the technical expertise of who we “elected” “President”.

What?

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

I think you could put it to good use by carving it up into about 10 million ice hockey sticks. It would be a decent way to recycle it.

Doesn’t work that way but hey it at least matches the technical expertise of who we “elected” “President”.

What?

. . . s m h

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

Doesn’t work that way but hey it at least matches the technical expertise of who we “elected” “President”.

What?

. . . s m h

So I guess when I said “what” I meant “why did you shoehorn some sort of political diatribe into a reply to my obviously facetious post?” Care to respond with something other than shaking your head?

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

What?

. . . s m h

So I guess when I said “what” I meant “why did you shoehorn some sort of political diatribe into a reply to my obviously facetious post?” Care to respond with something other than shaking your head?

It was the response that was deserved. In all cases.

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

. . . s m h

So I guess when I said “what” I meant “why did you shoehorn some sort of political diatribe into a reply to my obviously facetious post?” Care to respond with something other than shaking your head?

It was the response that was deserved. In all cases.

You’re acting like an ass, and I’m willing to get banned to say it.

DarkKnight5 wrote:

SuperiorPilotMe wrote:

DarkKnight5 wrote:

So I guess when I said “what” I meant “why did you shoehorn some sort of political diatribe into a reply to my obviously facetious post?” Care to respond with something other than shaking your head?

It was the response that was deserved. In all cases.

You’re acting like an ass, and I’m willing to get banned to say it.

In that case, and again, in both cases, I gave you exactly the response called for.

Now that Falcon 9 has proven you can reuse a first stage, an air launch becomes much less attractive. With improvements in SpaceX's design for more reuse, a cheaper engine etc., the nails are being driven into Stratolaunch's coffin.

That’s what I’m getting at. Put a linear aerospike engine on Falcon and that might be the final nail in the coffin.

The final nail in the coffin was literally the final nail going into Paul Allen's actual coffin. It was his pet project. Slapping a linear aerospike engine onto a cylindrical rocket designed for 9 engines sounds to me like how to turn a successful design into another Stratolaunch-type failed concept.

There’s concepts for it. You don’t need engines that literally are shaped like the thing they power. It might seem more counterintuitive for a rocket but it’s true.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/11/s ... Eko2lvdbvE


some fresh news about this amazing machine.

tapairbus370 wrote:

https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/10/11/stratolaunch-under-new-ownership/?fbclid=IwAR0055uHePDC8C9JWssYA8PubOMWV1p6hiZdP-_zJOTt2pg3AEko2lvdbvE


some fresh news about this amazing machine.

The new owner is CerberusCapital’s co-founder Steve Feinberg.
Source: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/exclusive ... rump-ally/

Ah yes Steve Feinberg I’m sure it’s in good hands now. Not like he’s gonna be distracted with anything related to impeachment hearings.

And Cerberus they did fine work with Chrysler before handing it off to Fiat

https://spacenews.com/stratolaunch-anno ... cle-plans/

It looks like they plan on developing a reusable hypersonic vehicle to be launched from the carrier airplanes (up to three at a time, in fact), for research purposes.
This sort of confirm what most people thought they were going to do when they took over the operation. The main object of the research is going to be for military purposes, but they say they will be looking for other applications as well.

The good news is that they plan on restarting flight tests with the carrier aircraft in September in order to pursue FAA certification.

Francoflier wrote:

https://spacenews.com/stratolaunch-announces-hypersonic-vehicle-plans/

It looks like they plan on developing a reusable hypersonic vehicle to be launched from the carrier airplanes (up to three at a time, in fact), for research purposes.
This sort of confirm what most people thought they were going to do when they took over the operation. The main object of the research is going to be for military purposes, but they say they will be looking for other applications as well.

The good news is that they plan on restarting flight tests with the carrier aircraft in September in order to pursue FAA certification.

Aero.de is reporting that they pulled Stratolaunch out of its hangar and prepare it for a second flight (and hopefully more). They are also reporting on some modifications to the wings (... sorry, just in German language): https://www.aero.de/news-36765/Stratola ... Leben.html

Up to three test vehicles can be dropped during one flight and they might fly weekly. There must be a lot of hypersonic research going on? Will we see new manned hypersonic planes soon?

Noshow wrote:

Up to three test vehicles can be dropped during one flight and they might fly weekly. There must be a lot of hypersonic research going on? Will we see new manned hypersonic planes soon?

There's a bit of a hypersonic weapons race going on at the moment between the US, China and Russia.
The main goal will be weapons development, but, as always, the fruits of that research may well end up benefiting civilian ventures down the line.

N14AZ wrote:

Francoflier wrote:

https://spacenews.com/stratolaunch-announces-hypersonic-vehicle-plans/

It looks like they plan on developing a reusable hypersonic vehicle to be launched from the carrier airplanes (up to three at a time, in fact), for research purposes.
This sort of confirm what most people thought they were going to do when they took over the operation. The main object of the research is going to be for military purposes, but they say they will be looking for other applications as well.

The good news is that they plan on restarting flight tests with the carrier aircraft in September in order to pursue FAA certification.

Aero.de is reporting that they pulled Stratolaunch out of its hangar and prepare it for a second flight (and hopefully more). They are also reporting on some modifications to the wings (... sorry, just in German language): https://www.aero.de/news-36765/Stratola ... Leben.html

https://www.aero.de/news-36765/Stratola ... Leben.html

LOS ANGELES - At the Mojave desert airport, north of Los Angeles, the gigantic twin-fuselage six-jet engine from Stratolaunch is apparently being prepared for new flights. The giant's commercial future is said to be in the dropping of unmanned hypersonic drones.

So far, the one-off called "Scaled Model 351 Stratolaunch" or "The Roc" has only been in the air once on April 13, 2019. After the death of the Stratolaunch founder and financier Paul Allen, the future of the giant exotic aircraft seemed uncertain until new partners took over the program.

Stratolaunch has announced the launch of hypersonic test aircraft as a new area of ​​application for the carrier aircraft. "The Roc" will carry and drop up to three unmanned drones at the release height.

For this purpose, Stratolaunch is developing the Talon-A unmanned research aircraft, of which up to three copies can be carried at a time in order to take off from there. The 8.5 meter long Talon-A with a 3.4 meter wingspan can, according to Stratolaunch, reach speeds of up to Mach 6.

The Talon-A aircraft, reminiscent of the X-37 in appearance, can be equipped with scientific, commercial or military payloads. The sensor package, which is tailor-made for each application, transmits its data to the ground during flight, before Talon-A returns for a gentle wheel landing on a runway.

When Stratolaunch will start again and when Stratolaunch will test the Talon-A, which weighs up to 2.7 tons, is not yet known. Talon-A should also be capable of self-launching from runways. Stratolaunch is already promising measurement scenarios up to Mach 8.

Roc is flying again!

Just over 2 years since its first, last and only flight, Stratolaunch's massive airborne launching platform is airborne again for a test flight, slated to last about 3 hours.

It's great (and extremely lucky) that this airplane is still alive, and it will now go on being a hypersonic vehicle launcher and may even launch reusable space vehicles in the future.

Google "stratolaunch twitter"