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General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Penderic on May 31, 2017, 07:53:35 PM

Title: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Penderic on May 31, 2017, 07:53:35 PM

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/paul-allens-stratolaunch-space-venture-brings-monster-airplane-hangar-first-time/

(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic006/stratonew4_zpsuvhso0pf.jpg)

 :shocked:

Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Sheepdog on May 31, 2017, 07:56:28 PM
Odd that there are two cockpits.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on May 31, 2017, 08:10:14 PM
  Fully loaded and fueled, its' take off weight is greater than the weight of 12 M-60 tanks.
 That is indeed a BIG airplane.

 quote- Odd that there are two cockpits.  Maybe they want two flight crews to be capable at the same time.
 Hopefully they are trying to do the same thing at the same time.

 If converted to a bomber it could carry 22 of those giant mother bombs like they used on the terrorists a couple of weeks ago.  Talk about Big Bang theory!
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: slowmover on May 31, 2017, 08:57:42 PM
I watched a show last night on the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. There was a 40 ft. in it's side and they put the whole battleship ON another bigger ship to get it to dry dock. I wish someone could post a picture.,
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: GuzziDog54 on May 31, 2017, 11:19:47 PM
I watched a show last night on the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. There was a 40 ft. in it's side and they put the whole battleship ON another bigger ship to get it to dry dock. I wish someone could post a picture.,

(http://thumb.ibb.co/evAYiF/Cole_Blue_Marlin.jpg) (http://ibb.co/evAYiF)
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Tom on May 31, 2017, 11:40:47 PM
Odd that there are two cockpits.

Husband and wife team.   :grin:
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Testarossa on June 01, 2017, 12:50:51 AM
Quote
Odd that there are two cockpits.

The plane is flown from the right side. The left side is empty and unpressurized. It has windows only because the plane has a lot of used components from retired 747s, including upper forward fuselage structures.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: fossil on June 01, 2017, 02:24:53 AM
The torsional load on the middle wing must be hell.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Socalrob on June 01, 2017, 03:09:56 AM
The torsional load on the middle wing must be hell.

I was thinking the same.  Shocked the tail was not connected.

Sure the engineers built it that way on purpose.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on June 01, 2017, 05:47:56 AM
 The lack of structure between the tails is probably to allow room to launch a space ship.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Northern Bill on June 01, 2017, 07:02:31 AM
thanks for posting - very interesting
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Testarossa on June 01, 2017, 08:13:42 AM
The plane can carry up to three orbital launch vehicles at a time, so it can put satellites into three different orbits on a single flight.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Two Checks on June 01, 2017, 08:57:26 AM
I watched a show last night on the terrorist bombing of the USS Cole in 2000. There was a 40 ft. in it's side and they put the whole battleship ON another bigger ship to get it to dry dock. I wish someone could post a picture.,
The Cole is a destroyer. Much smaller. There are no active commissioned battleships.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 09:00:42 AM
As big and heavy as it appears to be, its maximum takeoff weight is the same as an Airbus A380-800F, 1.3 million pounds.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: azguzzirep on June 01, 2017, 09:16:59 AM
I'd paint it yellow and call it 'Big Bird', or perhaps "Tweety"😆
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: drdwb on June 01, 2017, 09:38:41 AM
I didn't see mention of distance between wheels,but I'm thinking there's probably not too many runways in the world that this thing could land or take off from.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Penderic on June 01, 2017, 10:17:52 AM
You could land a small plane on those huge wings! Almost.  :rolleyes:

(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic006/small%20plane_zpsshe0nyfq.jpg)
 :laugh:
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 11:38:30 AM
Is that Chuck in the little yellow plane?
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Denis on June 01, 2017, 12:32:42 PM
The Cole is a destroyer. Much smaller. There are no active commissioned battleships.

Beat me to it.
And while there were floating dry-docks that could handle battleships (there's a neat YouTube video of the USS Idaho moving into one in 1944) there certainly was no ship afloat that could handle a battleship in the way that transport ship handled the Cole.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on June 01, 2017, 01:44:29 PM
  Landing a small plane on the big bird would be a landing with two severe bumps in mid field.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 01:58:39 PM
  Landing a small plane on the big bird would be a landing with two severe bumps in mid field.

You'd probably have to land with the two planes flying the same direction at the same speed.  Otherwise you'd have some severe crabbing to deal with.   :laugh:
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Sasquatch Jim on June 01, 2017, 03:20:15 PM
  I think they were referring to landing on it as it st on the ground.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: twowings on June 01, 2017, 03:39:10 PM
Chuck could do it!
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 03:39:30 PM
  I think they were referring to landing on it as it st on the ground.

What fun would that be?
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Tom on June 01, 2017, 04:00:59 PM
Is that Chuck in the little yellow plane?

Yes! and that's why we call him "Chuckie".  :grin: :grin:  :evil:
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: drdwb on June 01, 2017, 04:43:38 PM
Does that little yellow thing actually fly?  The little training wheel landing gear makes me think all landings would be bone jarring, and something I'd only want to experience once. Probably much rougher than the thread that described becoming air borne off a V7.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 04:51:27 PM
Does that little yellow thing actually fly?

Only if you drop it out of an airplane, and then much like a brick flies.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: n3303j on June 01, 2017, 09:37:39 PM
Only if you drop it out of an airplane, and then much like a brick flies.
Actually it flies at a speed approaching 200 mph
Here's a bit of history:
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/design/q0214.shtml
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Triple Jim on June 01, 2017, 10:01:20 PM
I stand wrong!  :)   It looked to me like the prop was not really bolted to anything substantial, so I thought the plane was just a display item or trainer of some sort.  Amazing!
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: fossil on June 02, 2017, 02:46:54 AM
Is that Chuck in the little yellow plane?
:grin:
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: tris on June 02, 2017, 02:53:39 AM
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/paul-allens-stratolaunch-space-venture-brings-monster-airplane-hangar-first-time/

(http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Penderic/Penderic006/stratonew4_zpsuvhso0pf.jpg)

 :shocked:

Is this thing real or a photochop??

In one of the pics on the web site it shows 2 tugs pulling it.

How do you sync that up - not least as come a turn the outer one would have to go faster than the inner one
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Two Checks on June 02, 2017, 03:23:19 AM
Even a brick will fly given enough power.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Rick in WNY on June 02, 2017, 07:18:17 AM
Let's look at this thing from a viewpoint of status...

It is: large, complicated, built from recycled pieces that are being forced to do jobs they were not designed to do, and they hung extra engines on it because they need the thrust to make up for the lack of wing area.

It will probably fly, but I wouldn't want to be under the flight path. It looks like a crash waiting to happen.

JMHO, YMMV.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: Pop on June 02, 2017, 08:30:24 PM
Maybe I'm a bit politically incorrect, when I opened the site and saw the plane, I said to myself. "Ahhh a Siamese plane."



"If you can't impress them with your knowledge, dazzle them with some B. S."
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: n3303j on June 02, 2017, 09:15:20 PM
From Avweb:

Stratolaunch Leaves Hangar
By Geoff Rapoport

Paul Allen's ambitious, fixed-wing satellite launch platform, the Stratolaunch, rolled out of its hangar Wednesday to begin ground and taxi testing. The colossal twin-fuselage aircraft, built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites, is projected to be, by wingspan, the largest aircraft to have ever taken flight, at 385 feet wide. The prototype has a 500,000-pound empty weight, a target maximum takeoff weight of 1.3 million pounds and is powered by six turbofans scavenged from Boeing 747-400s.

Today, we're moving the Stratolaunch aircraft out of the hangar, for the first time ever, to conduct aircraft fueling tests. This marks the completion of the initial aircraft construction phase and the beginning of the aircraft ground and flight testing phase, says Stratolaunch CEO, Jean Floyd. Stratolaunch hopes to reduce the size of rockets and therefore the cost of putting small satellites in space by launching from the stratosphere. The Stratolaunch is designed to carry three Orbital ATK Pegasus XL rockets, each of which will drive a satellite up to 1,000 pounds into low earth orbit.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: cruzziguzzi on June 02, 2017, 11:25:20 PM
Dynamic computer control not withstanding, I find the concept of flex mind-bogglingly frightening. I'm quite surprised at the lack of a continuous tail boom but then to, I can't seem to make a penny in the field of aeronautical design.


Todd.
Title: Re: Now Thats a BIG Airplane!
Post by: fossil on June 03, 2017, 04:11:56 AM
The idea is not new. In WWII there was the Heinkel He 111 Zwilling (= twin), a cumbersome affair. They at first let it fly in the same configuration as the (much bigger) plane in question, later they added a strut between the fuselages just before the elevators.