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Virgin Galactic Shows the Finished WhiteKnight Two
Klaus Schmidt writes "Virgin Galactic today unveiled their WhiteKnight Two mothership, called 'EVE.' It is designed to carry the smaller SpaceShip Two into space.
The rollout represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic's quest to launch the world's first private, environmentally benign, space access system for people, payload and science.
Christened 'EVE' in honor of Richard Branson's mother — Sir Richard performed the official naming ceremony — WK2 is both visually remarkable and represents ground-breaking aerospace technology. It is the world's largest all carbon composite aircraft and many of its component parts have been built using composite materials for the very first time. At 140 ft, the wing span is the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured."
is this some sort of record?!
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
But wait, I wanted to make the "where's the adorable trash-collecting robot to be its boyfriend" jokes!
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No thanks, I'll wait for the Wall-E model.
Have you seen Wayne Tech's new Dark Knight? Really impressive.
Well, just think of all of the structural engineering problems with producing a true LEGO space vehicle.
Do we really need modularization on that level?
Mon chien, il n'a pas du nez. Comment scent-il? TrÃs mauvais!
Better make sure they have sufficient dreadnought and battleship support with that thing, or it might get ganked.
The plane may be state of the art, but I do not think their server is. Oh dear.
Because I certainly can't get to it from Earth....
From the silhouettes, I see that WK2 has already shot down a Wright Flier, Bell X-1, and Boeing 747, and NASA Lunar Lander.
Yeah, my first thought was "How many turrets can you fit into that ship ?".
Then "Is there a Gallente version of this ?"
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
At 140 ft, the wing spar is the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured.
Wing sparring? At 140ft!? Dude, where do I sign up for this? "If you're gonna fight, take it up 140ft in the air, but there will be no fighting on my property."
To pay for a rocket, it would have to be a very rare material. Like plutonium - of course, we already have rockets ready to deliver those in 90 minutes or less!
Or the next one's free?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Geez. One misplaced single quote.
Fedex uses a major hub approach to distribution anyway. See the animation of their plane flights to see the grand dance in and out of Memphis.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
Sir Richard's mom is hot! But is she really a virgin?
Knowing how Virgin Media handles billing and service, 20 of those can look forward to not being charged, another 50 can look forward to being charged $300k, and 80% of them will spend 3 hours on the phone either on hold, or with John, an Indian who speaks about 12 words of English (none of which include "supervisor").
Also, about 10% of them will be considered too fat to go all the way into suborbit, and will instead find their $200k going towards a short Cessna flight.