Video: SpaceShipTwo First Captive Flight
- By Jason Paur
- March 23, 2010 |
- 5:47 pm |
- Categories: Air Travel
Virgin Galactic has released video from yesterday’s first captive flight of SpaceShipTwo, also known as the VSS Enterprise. Yesterday’s flight lasted 2 hours and 54 minutes and flew to 45,000 feet. It was the 25th flight for WhiteKnightTwo since the aircraft first flew back in December of 2008.
The video from Virgin Galactic shows crews preparing for the early morning flight as well as take off, air-to-air shots from chase aircraft and the landing. During the landing the aircraft can be seen yawing a bit which is completely normal during most aircraft landings. But with the massive wingspan and twin fuselages far away from the center of the aircraft, the motion catches the eye more than it would on a typical aircraft. Good stick and rudder skills are always needed for a good landing!
Scaled Composites test pilot Mark Stucky flew the aircraft for the first captive carry flight.
“We were able to accomplish virtually 100 percent of the flight cards, we cleared the envelope out to the full release speed and altitude on the very first flight” he said. “Things just went really well.”
Yesterday’s flight was the second for WhiteKnightTwo this month. On March 4, Stucky was the pilot on a flight to evaluate the pylon located at the center of the wing where SpaceShipTwo is attached. In the still photos from yesterday’s flight, numerous pieces of yarn can be seen on the center pylon to help engineers evaluate the aerodynamic interaction between the pylon, SpaceShipTwo and the main wing of WhiteKnightTwo.
Video: Virgin Galactic
Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/video-spaceshiptwos-first-captive-flight/#ixzz0j3kRFEmJ
No comments:
Post a Comment