Topic: Virgin's new spacecraft design

[Reno]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/01/23/nat.virgin.galactic.spacecraft.virgin

http://cnn-9.vo.llnwd.net/c1/cnn/big/tech/2008/01/23/nat.virgin.galactic.spacecraft.virgin_576x324_dl.flv

[Sandra]

Looks promising but I think I have already been as close to space as I will ever get and travelled as fast as I ever will after having a supersonic Concorde trip from Manchester to Iceland and then to Paris in 1991 

[Reno]

Whats wrong sandra, you don't have 200,000 stashed in the backyard somewhere?

[Clive]

Nice one Sandra!  I missed out on that experience.   

[Sandra]

It was a bit special Clive, the thing that surprised me most, apart from the incredible acceleration down the runway, was that at just over 60,000 feet if you looked out of the window it was almost black if you looked up at about 45degrees, dark blue if you looked straight out and light blue if you looked down at 45 degrees 

[sam]

could you see the curvature of the atmosphere? I have heard people do on occasion.

BTW I'm not sure about this space tourism stuff, it all seems like it is happening in a bit of a rushed manner.

[Sandra]

Cant say as I noticed that Sam.
The windows are quite small compared to wide body jets and as we were over the water when we reached mach 2 and 63,000 feet there wasnt much to look at 

The only thing that made us aware that we were going fast was the machmeter on the wall at the front of the cabin, no real sensation of speed apart from the initial take off acceleration then the next surge of acceleration as the after burners were fired up to take us supersonic.
No sonic boom as presumably we were going too fast to hear the one that we must have made 

There was however quite a lot of "wind" noise, as you get when going fast in a car, which surprised me,
Apparently Concorde grows by 8 inches at supersonic speed, due to the heat of the friction causing it to expand.

I had a very nice steak served with a bottle of Pauillac which went down very well after the initial glasses of champagne served to us in the VIP lounge at Manchester airport and during the flight before the meal 

[Debs.]

Cant say as I noticed that Sam.
The windows are quite small compared to wide body jets and as we were over the water when we reached mach 2 and 63,000 feet there wasnt much to look at 

The only thing that made us aware that we were going fast was the machmeter on the wall at the front of the cabin, no real sensation of speed apart from the initial take off acceleration then the next surge of acceleration as the after burners were fired up to take us supersonic.
No sonic boom as presumably we were going too fast to hear the one that we must have made 

There was however quite a lot of "wind" noise, as you get when going fast in a car, which surprised me,
Apparently Concorde grows by 8 inches at supersonic speed, due to the heat of the friction causing it to expand.

I had a very nice steak served with a bottle of Pauillac which went down very well after the initial glasses of champagne served to us in the VIP lounge at Manchester airport and during the flight before the meal 

Oh Sandra; I`m so envious; you had a trip on Concorde and a steak! 

I only-ever got as far as a cabin/cockpit visit aboard a Concorde on the ground; I did see the large gap twixt the flight engineer`s panel and the bulkhead which (I was told) closes to nothing during the fuselage heating cycles of trans/super-sonic flight.

For me, the sight and sound (sadly now only possible on video) of the beautiful 'supersonics': Concorde and the SR-71 'Blackbird', stir me at a deeply profound level..... 

I worked for Burt Rutan (Designer/constructor of the X Prize winning Spaceship-1) at Mojave for many years: I`d give ANYTHING to be able to go back now and work at Scaled Composites on the Spaceship-2/Whiteknight projects.....   

....As for the possibilities of 'space tourism': "Shoot for the moon; even if you fail, you`ll be amongst the stars!" 

[Clive]

I'm kicking myself for not having taken the opportunity while it existed Sandra.  We travelled business class to Bangkok last August and the business class lounge was awesome.  I went off for a wander to the airport shops and made the mistake of going back to the First Class lounge which looked similar on the outside, but I had short shrift at reception and was quickly booted out as an inferior business class traveller.  I cannot begin to imagine what the VIP lounge was like!   

[Sandra]

Burt Rutan and Jim Bede are in my mind, two of the most innovative aircraft designers that there have been since RJ Mitchell.

That must have been something to work for Rutan Debs 

Whatever happened to that wonderful JBD 5J , I think that was its name, the single seater jet that James Bond once flew ?

Being Manchesters VIP lounge back in the late 80s I dont think it was that special Clive, not as I remember it.
The main thing was that you didnt have a long way to walk to the gate or from the gate once you were boarding as they had the Concorde parked at the shortest arm of all the hubs/gates to the VIP lounge