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robert arndt wrote:

Tupolev Tu-160
First Designated: "Aircraft 70" in direct response to B-1A, 1973
First Flight: Dec 19, 1981
Initial Order: 100 aircraft; 30 produced before line closed in 1992
Remaining Aircraft: Russia- 15, Ukraine- 19 original, 8 transferred to
Russia in 99/00, 3 ex-Ukrainian aircraft sold to US as satellite
launchers in 1999, rest scrapped

"Satellite launchers"? Really? Is someone actually doing this,
or even working on it? Just curious because it seems to me that
piggy-back spacecraft on aircraft is an underexploited concept.
I'm sure there are all sorts of good reasons why, but if someone
is actually doing this I'd love to see pointers to articles, etc.

I believe the Blackjack-as-launch-vehicle proposal was stillborn. But the
concept is not unheard of; Orbital Science Corp had launched some 70
satellites using its Pegasus booster, first from the NASA B-52 and later
from its own converted L-1011 TriStar. See: www.orbital.com/LaunchVehicle/
SpaceLaunchVehicles/Pegasus/

Brooks

(Hey, how 'bout them Hokies? I see they are still able to snatch defeat from
the jaws of victory... g; just kidding--I spent about five years in
Blacksburg after leaving active duty back in the late eighties)


Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.