Virgin Galactic Test Flights To Restart This Year

astroengine writes: Test flights of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo are on schedule to begin again this year – this time with its own pilots, the chief executive of Richard Branson's space startup said Friday. The first in a series of planned passenger spaceships was destroyed on Oct. 31, 2014, during a fatal test flight being conducted by manufacturer Scaled Composites. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident, determined that co-pilot Michael Alsbury, who died in the crash, released the ship's moveable tail section early. The vehicle was not traveling fast enough for aerodynamic forces to keep the so-called "feather" pinned in place, as designs called for. As a result, the ship was torn apart, jettisoning pilot Pete Siebold in the process, who managed to parachute to safety.

Comments

...c'mon lemme see you shake your tail feather...

[TWX]

I hope they'll have found a better solution for the tail by the time they go to passenger flights. Pilots don't like being denied an option to do something but if that something can tear the craft apart even when it's piloted by some of the most experienced pilots in the world, I don't see how it'll be better in commercial hands.

Re:...c'mon lemme see you shake your tail feather.

[MichaelSmith]

Try dropping the landing gear in a commercial jet at mach 0.8.