Stratolaunch breaks cover

[Cold]

250 tons of twin hulled rocket launcher rolls out of its hanger and into the Mojave sun - and reignites a whole desert full of doubt and scepticism about its viability.

Link

[Voldemort]

What's the point of two cockpits?

[Steve_D]

Is it April 1st?

Steve

[Eric Mc]

Voldemort said:

What's the point of two cockpits?

Ask the guys who designed these -





This is an early proposal for a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (unused because of the cheap availability of a second hand 747) -

[dukeboy749r]

Have to wonder at the possibility (probability) that this will be a proverbial 'white elephant'

[conkerman]

That centre section of wing looks awfully narrow. It's a right spindly bugger.

I wonder what it is like to fly being so far off centre axis?

[Mave]

Voldemort said:

What's the point of two cockpits?

Maybe commonality of design of the forward fuselage? Maybe for ground ops?

[BOBTEE]

Admittedly, my aircraft design experience is limited to Lego but I'd say that looks like it'll break, really quite easily!

[Eric Mc]

The reason why it looks spindly is because of its advanced design and construction methods. It is a Burt Rutan design and follows a line of similar aircraft built along similar principles.

I'm sure they know what they are doing regarding the structural loads that it willhave to bear. After all, this is their area of expertise.

[FurtiveFreddy]

You see from the photo they have considered the possibility of the centre wing section failing and wrapped loads of gaffer tape around it just in case.

[ukaskew]

That must be very odd to pilot (and land) given how far off-centre the pilot will be.

[Eric Mc]

Almost as bad as this -

[Steve_D]

Mave said:

Voldemort said:

What's the point of two cockpits?

Maybe commonality of design of the forward fuselage? Maybe for ground ops?

I read somewhere they had salvaged two 747 400s for the engines and various other systems. To my eye the widescreens look very much like 747 so they may have grafted the whole nose(s) on complete with all the instrumentation in place.


Steve

[Eric Mc]

Very likely considering that this was based on B-52 components -

[ukaskew]

Steve_D said:

I read somewhere they had salvaged two 747 400s for the engines and various other systems. To my eye the widescreens look very much like 747 so they may have grafted the whole nose(s) on complete with all the instrumentation in place.


Steve

Indeed. The earlier concept videos were still 747 shaped at the front, I guess they've streamlined them a bit since.

[hammo19]

I think I may have glued something in between the tail planes for additional strength. Pass the balsa wood please.....

[Cold]

As a "thing" it looks frikkin' awesome. Whether it will actually be able to do the job it's designed for is another matter. But the business case does not detract from the Thunderbird-ness of it.
To the skies and beyond!

[Strugs]

Cold said:

As a "thing" it looks frikkin' awesome. Whether it will actually be able to do the job it's designed for is another matter. But the business case does not detract from the Thunderbird-ness of it.
To the skies and beyond!

^^This!^^

[Eric Mc]

That's more or less what I said on the other thread on the Stratolauncher on Wednesday -


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Simpo Two]

Eric Mc said:

As Eric Brown said, 'As you took off in this you felt you'd forgotten something'