Slashdot Mirror
Fuel Loss May Cut Short GlobalFlyer's Journey
chris mazuc writes "Apparently the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer has lost 2,600 lbs of fuel and might be forced to abort the attempt." According to the article, "Jon Karkow from Scaled Composites was unable to say whether it was due to leakage or evaporation. "We really don't know what it is... It's more than likely a system issue, such as a fuel venting line. It's been very puzzling for us, and we saw it quite early on.".
An amount of fuel was predicted to be lost due to evaporation, but as the aircraft's tanks had not been tested at full capacity , Mission Control were unable to predict the exact amount that would be lost.
Uh .. I don't think I'm quite as eager as I once was to go up on Virgin Galactic* The Global Flyer would more appropriately be named The Bleeding Edge.
*The joint venture between Rutan's Scaled Composites and Branson's Virgin.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Aliens.
Aliens with a thirst for fuel.
air and light and time and space
Why not just land on a flying fortess and never really stop?
His plane was supposed to be loaded with 12400 hogsheads to make the 18,000 hectaire journey. Instead they used gallons.
They saw this early on. This indicates a problem that could have been found with a couple short test flights. Surely they had test flights, I mean, I wouldn't climb aboard a flying gas tank unless the thing had undergone some degree of flight testing prior to being loaded down for the long haul.
That is about 380 gallons of gas, if you calculate avgas at 6.84 lbs/gallon.
-ted
It was due to a defective fuel guage showing a full tankload, despite it being 2600 lbs short.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
...there's a difference between the Global Flyer and the Galactic, in that the Global Flyer is a non commercial interest. The galactic carries paying passengers - I doubt the Global Flyer will ever do such a thing, given its capacity.
Further more, the global flyer has been designed for a speed record attempt, and so must be at the bleeding edge to beat what's gone before. Sure, the Galactic would also be a record breaking craft, but it isn't going to be chasing speed records. The Global Flyer has to be the fastest machine, and therefore utilise more unproven technology than, say, the Galactic.
The article mentioned they will have to decide before departing Japaneese airspace, but you can see from the current posit, they are several uhnder miles off the coast.
"Let my takeoff-to-safe landings ratio always remain at 1:1."
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
Damn Jawas!
We men all know cars still have half a tank even when on empty.
In my car, there is no "empty". "E" stands for "enough".
"See, honey? There's enough gas left in the tank..."
Why? It wasn't tax payer money. If some rich guy wants to blow his wad on something stupid like this, don't kick his ass, laugh when it fails.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
When learning to fly a Cessna 150, my instructor always made me not trust the fuel gage since what it reports can safely be confirmed another way -- I'd have to look in the tanks and dip a stick in the fuel to be sure there was enough. When flying, it's a different story as you must trust your instruments.
... start at the pole and roll it around the world in around 30 seconds. Then you could move out from there!
Lister: Oh god, aliens? Your explanation for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn't it? You lose your keys, it's aliens. A picture falls off the wall, it's aliens. That time we used up a whole bog roll in a day, you thought that was aliens as well. Rimmer: Well we didn't use it all, Lister. Who did? Lister: Rimmer, aliens used our bog roll? Rimmer: Just 'cause they're aliens doesn't mean to say they don't have to visit the little boys' room. Only they probably do something weird and alienesque, like it comes out of the top of their heads or something. Lister: Well I wouldn't like to be stuck behind one in a cinema.
I don't get it.
Gallons in the UK are about 20% bigger.
I guess the King wanted bigger jugs.
The Virgin web site has an interesting story about Branson giving Fossett a fancy watch to aid him on the flight,
Watch to the rescue: "When speaking at a press conference the day before take-off of the emergency systems in place in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer if something were to go drastically wrong, Sir Richard Branson promptly took off his watch and gave it to his great friend Steve Fossett." But here's the rest of the story.
According to people who were there, Richard Branson walks into the press conference holding two huge and obviously heavy suitcases when the topic came up about issues regarding the timing of the flight.
Branson sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. "It's now a quarter to six," he says, and goes on to explain the planned timing for the next day's flight.
"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims Steve Fossett, the pilot.
Branson brightens a little. "Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out" - and he shows him a time zone display not just for every time zone in the world, but for the 86 largest metropoli. He hits a few buttons and from somewhere on the watch a voice says "The time is eleven minutes to six" in a posh British accent. A few more buttons and the same voice says something in Japanese. Branson continues, "I've put in regional accents for each city". The display is unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply astounding.
Fossett is struck dumb with admiration.
"That's not all," says Branson. He pushes a few more buttons and a tiny but very hi-resolution map of central London appears on the display. "The flashing dot shows our location by satellite positioning," explains Branson. "View recede ten," Branson says, and the display changes to show the whole of Greater London.
"I need this watch!" says Fossett.
"Oh, no, it's not ready for sale yet; this is a prototype and the inventor is still working out the bugs," says Branson. "But look at this," and he proceeds to demonstrate that the watch is also a very creditable little FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that can measure distances up to 125 meters, a pager with thermal paper printout and most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recordings of up to 300 standard-size books," though I only have 32 of my favourites in there so far" says Sir Richard.
"I've got to have this watch!" says Fossett. "It's just what I need for my flight!"
"No, you don't understand; it's not ready."
"I'll give you whatever you want for it! I'll give up my share of the royalties for the promotional tour after the flight!"
Branson abruptly makes his decision. "OK," he says and peels off the watch, handing it to Fossett, who starts happily away, heading to the plane.
"Hey, wait a minute," Sir Richard calls after Fossett, who turns around warily. Branson points to the two suitcases he'd been trying to lug into the press conference. "Don't forget your batteries."
Previously updated about every six seconds, now I am only getting refreshes every 45-60 seconds.
Actually, due to a design to keep the structural mass low and due to the mass of the fuel, it can't land safely with a full (or even half) load of fuel.
The plane just isn't strong enough. Making the plane stronger would make it heavier, and a heavier plane would require more fuel. Its a compromise that had to be made.
On a side note, they actually wanted to use a different turbine that was more fuel efficient but, were unable to locate one. So since the turbine they are using consumes more fuel, more compromises had to be made in the design.
With a flight like this, you have to get rid of every last once of weight possible.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern