Ron_Wanttaja
Article says that the maximum altitude was 52.9 miles, presumably nautical miles. That’s about 98 kilometers…two km shy of the Karman line that defines the start of space.
4 replies
Article says that the maximum altitude was 52.9 miles, presumably nautical miles. That’s about 98 kilometers…two km shy of the Karman line that defines the start of space.
4 replies
Are they all wearing parachutes?
The Kármán line is not an official definition. The US Armed Forces use 50 miles (80 km) above mean sea level for example.
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Congrats to the Italian Air Force!
Congrats to Virgin Galactic!
I was impressed by the speeds I saw on the video display:
Approach >200 mph - wowza
Touchdown at 168 mph - yikes
I also enjoyed the 40 seconds of IMC on the way down. Glad it didn’t cause them to scrub.
Finally, Eve had to maintain a holding pattern until Unity could clear the runway which took a good 15 minutes. I cause the same problem when I land my sailplane (attention all available golf carts). What we need is electric taxi motors in our landing gear or additional runways, ha.
So is the metric system, but that doesn’t stop the U.S. from doing things its own way. 
Speaking as a fully-conscious aviator, your pejorative use of “woke” marks you more than us. Of course I am happy to see the successful conclusion of a record-breaking flight. Or any flight, for that matter.
If you are getting your information about technological achievements and failures from the unwashed masses on social media, you deserve to remain ignorant of the significant differences between the two organizations. Sadly, where there is no oversight, all that stands between giddy post-flight photo-ops and salvage ops is the attitude of the principals involved. Stockton Rush is lucky that he didn’t survive his hubris.
Just thought I’d take this opportunity to differentiate myself from JOHN K. And thank you Aviatrexx for saying what needed to be said.
I apologize for offending anyone who would not approve of the sort of “five billionaires at the bottom of the ocean is just a good start” posts I refer to. And there have been a LOT of them.
And my new week’s resolution will be to crack down on my occasional inappropriate political outbursts. I recognize they are inappropriate for this forum; Mea culpa.
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Rush, that must’ve been a great experience! And they recognized it appropriately by registering SpaceShipOne as N328KF. That’s “328,000’ feet,” or about 100km. Still quite an achievement, but this flight came up just short.
Interesting if you think about it. When individuals were chasing prizes and/or fame, as well as when nation states were vying for dominance, those milestones were incredibly important.
I wonder how many of VG’s customers really think it makes a difference. I bet a few do. Most likely do not.
If you are looking for a book idea, I bet there’s some interesting parallels and contrasts with earlier frontiers on air, land, and sea. The economics of what kind of patrons, what economic and political strata they were from, and the effects on progress might be interesting.
Maybe it’s because I’m a space race era kid, or because I was a sci fi fan, I think the more space flight the better, so I’m pretty positive on the concept. Anything that moves money from people who have lots of it to engineers, pilots, and makers is likely a good thing, too.
It’s quite likely the Italian Air Force uses 50 miles for its definition.
Or they do now…
That’s a very progressive attitude! Thank you!
No, they were using statute miles. The only ship in the line to exceed 90km was S[aceShipOne, which cracked 100km on three occasions.
And don’t hold your breath waiting for Unity to catch up. It was built around the engine, which doesn’t quite have the power to do the job. Swapping in a different engine would mean rebuilding the entire craft. Maybe doable, but building a Unity successor would be far more likely.
For a nice review of all the SS1/SS2/Unity flights, see:
Let me be clear, I congratulate VG for their achievement in developing a truly unique vehicle. It shows innovation and ingenuity in approaching “space travel” in a different way. I just fail to see the point in “space tourism”, where a bunch of rich dudes get to check something off their bucket list. The average American probably could not pony up the cash for such a ride, even if they wanted to, which they most likely don’t. Love him or hate him, at least Elon Musk is building space vehicles that will produce tangible results for the future of space travel beyond suborbital joyrides.