Rutan hits 200k feet! Almost there!

In article ,
"C J Campbell" writes:

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...
Where's the similarity? The Wrights were the first to achieve powered,
sustained, controlled heavier-than-air flight. Nobody had accomplished
that

before the Wrights on December 17, 1903. But manned suborbital flight HAS
been accomplished before, four times before, and it was last done over
forty
years ago. If manned suborbital spaceflight had any real usefulness why
did
it stop?


The earlier flights were not done in a re-usable spacecraft.

Most definitely _not_ the case (Or to quote Mary Shafer, "Wrong,
wrong, wrongitty wrong!")
The two suborbital Mercury flights were not my re-usable spacecraft,
But they weren't the only spacecraft used.

On July 19, 1963, Joe Walker, flying X-15 66672, reached an altitude
of 347,800'. (Flight 3-21-3, Mission # 90 in the X-15 program.

On August 22, 1963, Walker, again flying 66672, reached an altitude of
354,200'. (Flight 3-22-36, Mission # 91 in the X-15 program.

Are you trying to say that the X-15 wasn't reusable? That'll come as
a big surprise to the people who got 199 flights out of 3 aircraft.

Note that the August 22 flight was originally scheduled to be flown on
Aug 6, 1963, but was aborted before launch due to a systems problem
(Computer overheat). There was an attempt to refly on Aug 13, 1963
that was aborted after an APU wouldn't start. Another reply attempt
of Aug 15 was aborted due to weather. So the second flight could very
easily have occurred on Aug 6.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster