http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/06/flying-wing-to-wing.html

Watch the videos on that page...pretty cool. When they land, Buzz Aldrin greets them.

That's awesome. Made my day!

Buzz and I are distant relatives from the Aldrin side of my family in Sweden. I'm guessing I mention that fact more often than he does...

That is an elegant aircraft. Its hard to imagine that private enterprise is on the edge of space travel. The king of homebuilt aircraft design, Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites has taken homebuilt aircraft design to its highest level, partnered with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ( Foreign investment), and it all started with a US government backed (Taxpayer financed) competition for a new space ship. (Won by Rutan's Scaled Composite's Space Ship One)

Goes to show that this was a great mix of partners, each balanced in their proper role to achieve a common goal. The outcome of this mix doesn't get any better than this.

I wonder where Burt was that day?

dirtstrip wrote:
I wonder where Burt was that day?

I wonder how they got away with a formation flight on a commercial flight (I assume the press had to pay to ride)...especially afther the FAA is trying to hang that controller for requesting a flyby of the unresponsive Cirrus by a Southwest jet nearly 1 mile away.

Good point on that formation flight. Probably all passengers were sick and as the pilot replied Rojaah that, the engine sort of missed, maybe, a little, and he had to continue in to the landing and there was no other way than to fly next to Spaceship two to do it.

I have to make a correction to my first post concerning the involvement of the government sponsorship of the prize to be first private craft into space. I have that prize, the Ansari X competition, which was All private money, confused with the NASA competition called the Centennial Challenge which sponsors competition from private enterprise for lower cost solutions in space missions. I hope the results are as good.

dirtstrip wrote: Probably all passengers were sick and as the pilot replied Rojaah that, the engine sort of missed, maybe, a little, and he had to continue in to the landing and there was no other way than to fly next to Spaceship two to do it.

I bet he was all up in his grill too. Rah Jaaaaah!

Good going on the correction, dirtstrip. The Ansari X-prize was inspired by Lindbergh's award for crossing the Atlantic, and was fabulously
successful in its purpose. Not only did SS1 get spaceborne in record time (from the start of development), it made the NASA bureaucrats look
pretty silly with their white elephant programs.

Hopefully, without a lot of further government oppression, the space industry will grow at amazing levels. The missing piece of the puzzle with a government program is the lack of a profit motive. You need a real incentive to succeed, and nationalism only goes so far.

Great stuff!!

My Forest Gump moment from '04: Mike Melvill standing on top of Space Ship One, minutes after landing from 301K ft. to qualify for the X-Prize. Burt Rutan sitting on the tail gate of the pickup truck/rocket ship tug. I love the low fanfare, get 'er done atmosphere of those guys at Mojave.