Ron Wanttaja wrote:

On Sun, 27 Jun 2004 14:57:40 GMT, Richard Lamb
wrote:


As a (very!) few people have mentioned over the years,
sucessful aircraft design is all about fullfilling the
stated mission objectives.

I think Ron W's post gave clear indication that SS1
WON'T scale up for an orbital ship.

That is a completely different and much more demanding
mission objective, requiring a completely different design.

But I have purest faith that if Burt bites into that one
it WILL be a success, and it will likely be completely different

from anything we've see so far.

Absolutely...if it can be done, Burt is the man who can do it.

We do have to remember the other half of the SpaceShipOne equation, though.
Instead of calling it the "Scaled SpaceShipOne," I should refer to it as
the "Scaled/Allen SpaceShipOne." Whether Rutan moves on to orbital craft
probably depends on whether Paul Allen is willing to pay for it.

I'm not sure even Paul has pockets deep enough to fund an orbital
mission. Sure would be fun to watch though if he does!


Matt