Parent company: Northrop Grumman
pometablava said:Parent company: Northrop Grumman
That's interesting. I always thought it was an independent company.
SaturnCanuck said:Has anyone ever done a "putnam-style" book on Rutan's works?
Stargazer2006 said:If I knew how to set about doing that and had the right contacts, I would gladly volunteer...
Stargazer2006 said:Oh I see... It's the old file that's online!
The new one (done a couple of years ago, but still more recent than the 2006 version) is attached here.
SOC said:Which one of those projects is the one Rutan referred to as "Manta"?
SOC said:AirForces Monthly did a special called X-Planes2...The Next Generation back in late 2000. Nothing earth-shattering, basically a look at future technology from 2000's perspective. Anyway, there is a piece on SENIOR CITIZEN. Scaled Composites apparently built an RCS pole model called "Manta" for Northrop with a clipped diamond-delta wing after 1981. It was based on the original B-2 design without the outer wing panels. The article also claims that there is a model of a white triangular object in Burt Rutan's Mojave office, which they refer to as "Manta". Different, but related, to the Northrop "Manta" from the early 80's. The implication is that the Northrop design (which Scaled built the RCS model for) became SENIOR CITIZEN, and the Scaled design is something pretty similar but not quite the same. If the article is right, find info or an image of Rutan's model, and you've got a much better idea of what SENIOR CITIZEN should theoretically look like.
flateric said:I think that everyone will enjoy this Burt's NDIA presentation
RanulfC said:A note on the "Orbital SS-3/4": From what Burt has been saying in the last couple of years he is no longer looking at an SS-flip tail design for sub-orbital Point-To-Point or for Orbital travel as (according to his statements) the "feather" won't work at high supersonic/hypersonic or reentry speeds. Not sure WHY he said this as he hasn't ever explained the statement though.
Stargazer2006 said:I noticed something interesting: for the first time an official Scaled document acknowledges AND illustrates the two prototypes done for Toyota, theLima 1and the TAA-1 !
...And NOW you know my frustrations ;D I can't think of much else other than the wings, being orientated "into-the-wind" so to speak would experiance higher heating loads because of the thinner/sharper leading edges. SS-2 has "addressed" my concerns with the "high-wing" design by having a "low-wing" design but it still doesn't actualy fly much faster than SS-1 overall so maybe it's something that only shows up on higher speed reentries? I just don't know.FutureSpaceTourist said:Thanks for the Orion background.
RanulfC said:A note on the "Orbital SS-3/4": From what Burt has been saying in the last couple of years he is no longer looking at an SS-flip tail design for sub-orbital Point-To-Point or for Orbital travel as (according to his statements) the "feather" won't work at high supersonic/hypersonic or reentry speeds. Not sure WHY he said this as he hasn't ever explained the statement though.
I'd assumed (but obviously may be wrong ...) that the "feather" may work, purely in terms of orienting the vehicle, but that the amount of kinetic energy to lose is so much higher than suborbital that even a higher-drag configuration still results in very high re-entry temperatures (and maybe high G-forces on occupants?).
SaturnCanuck said:Has anyone ever done a "putnam-style" book on Rutan's works?
sublight said:Wasn't Burt supposed to reveal his very last design, a plane for himself? I didn't see that happen anywhere....