Video: SNC Dream Chaser 'Space Shuttle' Free-Flight Test: Successful, With A Problem

 This just released video shows the first free-flight test of the Sierra Nevada Corporation 'Dream Chaser' spaceplane on Saturday October 26, 2013. While the Dream Chaser will have the capability to carry up to seven crew members, this flight test was carried out with no one onboard using the automated flight control system. The video shows the lifting body space-shuttle-like vehicle being released from the Erikson Air-Crane helicopter and then flying extremely stable and right on glide path thru the short flight (less than one minute) and includes the approach to runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base.

 What isn't seen in this video is the aftermath of the touchdown when the left landing gear failed to extend. During the flare the right main and nose gear deployed properly but for reasons yet unknown, the left main did not deploy. Some reports indicate that the vehicle sustained significant damage due to loss of control after touchdown.

 While the landing gear issue and subsequent damage to the test vehicle is certainly a setback, the team has much to celebrate with this test. A teleconference scheduled for later today will give insight into the damage to Dream Chaser and how the mishap will affect the program.

 It's interesting to note that it appears that the landing gear on this particular Dream Chaser, known as the engineering test article (ETA) which is not intended for any space flights, is not the same design as will be on the flight test article (FTA). I'm sure we'll here more about these details before long.

www.sncdreamchaser.com

Video screenshot of the Dream Chaser about to land without left main gear extended

Video Proof Of Why Oshkosh Is The World's Greatest Aviation Event!

 This 4 minute 11 second video gives you just a small slice of what took place at Oshkosh 2013, and yet the avgeekery seen in this just-released FlyWithEAA video is crazy huge. Try to imagine the other 95% that you aren't seeing here. Oshkosh is simply incredible.

 If you've been making excuses of why you shouldn't or can't be there, stop it. Stop it now. It's time to get serious about OSH14. You've got 10 months to get your plans in place, which translates to: there are no excuses. Rich or poor, near or far, there's always a way to make this trip work out if the desire is truly there. If you need help or have questions, send me an email. I'm here to help any way I can.

See you in Oshkosh... the World's Greatest Aviation Event!

(check out AirPigz OSH13 posts) 

 Video screenshot: one of about a million awesome Oshkosh 2013 moments!

Video: Men Who Fly Like The Squirrel! (Wingsuits)

 Tho I've always been a fan of skydiving (and have 110 jumps myself) I've been a little unsure how I feel about the way wingsuit pilots fly. But I must say that this beautiful video is just pure fantastic! It's men who fly like the squirrel! (Pteromyini)

Video screenshot: wingsuit jumping off of beautiful Italian rocks!

Video: Virgin Galactic And SpaceShipTwo Supersonic On First Powered Flight Test!

(click pic for hi-res) SpaceShipTwo first powered flight on 4.29.13 (photo: Virgin Galactic)

 Great success was achieved yesterday (April 29, 2013) in Mojave California as Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic flew SpaceShipTwo Enterprise on their first powered flight ever. After release from the mothership at 47,000 feet, the SS2 crew fired the rocket motor for 16 seconds propelling them up to 55,000 feet and Mach 1.2 - supersonic!

 The test flight appears to have been completely successful. Congratulations to all involved in achieving this major milestone!

read the full Virgin Galactic report here 

(click pic for hi-res)  Enterprise during first rocket burn test flight (photo: Virgin Galactic)  

CoolPix 2Fer: Up Close And Personal With The X-15 Rocket Nozzle!

(click pic for hi-res)  Looking deep inside the exhaust nozzle of the X-15's rocket engine!

 I captured these two pictures at the end of January 2012 during the AirPigz meetup at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, but before I tell you any more about why I think these pix ar so cool, I wanna tell you that I've recently decided that there's gonna be an AirPigz meetup on Fri thru Sun (January 25, 26, 27 - 2013) at the National Air & Space Museum (both the National Mall facility and the Udvar-Hazy) near Washington DC. I don't have any more details yet to share just yet but there will be a dedicated post coming soon with more info. If you're interested in possibly making the trip to tour the museum and meetup with other avgeeks in the process, click here to send me an email to be added to the info list for the AirPigz January 2013 National Air And Space Museum MeetUp.

 Now, back to these X-15 pix... only three North American X-15's were built. X-15-A-3 (#56-6672) was destroyed in a tragic accident that took the life of Michael Adams in 1967 when control was lost and the airframe broke up due to extremely high g loading. The other two remaining X-15's are the one on display in the Research & Development Gallery at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio (X-15-A-2 #56-6671) and the one hanging from the ceiling at the National Mall building at the National Air And Space Museum in Washington DC (X-15-A-1 #56-6670). The amazing thing about the X-15 on display in Dayton Ohio is that the R&D Gallery is set up to allow you to walk right in-and-around the aircraft! It's a most amazing opportunity to be within inches of these historic aircraft. (please remember, no touching!)

 When I walked around behind the X-15 I was really taken by the opportunity to look right up inside the rocket engine exhaust nozzle... realizing that back in the 1960's when I was just a kid a massive amount of thrust (up to 57,000 pounds) had expanded thru here and pushed this little black beast at speeds up to and well over 4,000 mph! (the fastest X-15 flight was in 1967 at 4,519 mph) - And I'm standing looking right inside that nozzle. Wow. Amazing. (learn more about the Reaction Motors XLR99 that powered the X-15)

 Then I noticed that the view inside the nozzle was actually kind of artsy looking. But way more than just artsy, this cool visual was the business end of one of the most amazing aircraft ever designed and built! So I did a little playing around trying to get a really good image looking only at the radial grooves, the coloration inside the nozzle, and the actual central port. The picture above is that view. One of these days I'm gonna have a big enlargement of that hanging on my wall... and if things go like I hope, you might too.

(click pic to enlarge) Wider exhaust view of X-15-A-2 (#56-6671) at the Air Force Museum

 This second picture is here to give you a better perspective of what you're seeing in the tight shot. And again, the most amazing part of the X-15 experience at the Air Force Museum's R&D Gallery is that you can walk right around this incredible piece of aviation/aerospace history. Truly a fantastic American moment right there! I'm looking forward to seeing the other X-15 at the Air And Space Museum in Washington DC in late January, but I gotta say I'm ready at any time to get back to Dayton and see this beast up close and personal once again : )

 
more X-15 on AirPigz

Video: Fabulous Time-Lapse Of Shuttle Endeavour Thru The Streets Of LA - Mission 26!

 The last three weeks have been a pretty amazing for awesome avgeekery... we had the first flight of the incredible Avspecs Mosquito (eight years in restoration and the only Mosquito in the world now flying)... and of course there was Felix Baumgartner and that record setting Red Bull Stratos spacedive that we're still talking about... and, the Space Shuttle Endeavour made her final journey from LAX to the California Science Center last weekend. 

 This fabulous time-lapsed video labeled 'Mission 26' (Endeavour had 25 missions in space, this is Mission 26) shows that 12 mile journey in HD and with great beauty. And I'm really glad to see that the people of the LA area came out in large and very supportive numbers to catch a look of Endeavour on her way to her resting place. It looks like a job very well done by everyone : )

Amazing screenshot of Endeavour on her way thru the streets of L.A. last weekend

Watch Shuttle Endeavour's Last Journey Live... Low And Slow Thru Los Angeles

Endeavour 'crossing' thru LA today (photo: Jeff Gritchen/Getty Images: via LA Times)

 Los Angeles TV station KTLA is providing some live coverage of the Shuttle Endeavour slowly making its way from LAX to the California Science Center in Exposition Park where it will be put on display. Watch the live feed here.

 I don't know how long the journey will take, but when I posted this live at 5:49pm EDT (Saturday 10-13-12), the Shuttle was still making the slow 12 mile journey.

 It's great to see from the media coverage (like the string of LA Times stories where the pic above came from) how much the locals are enjoying and appreciating their opportunity to see Endeavour up close like this. It's a great day in LA!

More LA Times Endeavour coverage

To The Edge Of Space And Beyond! X-15 CoolPix 2Fer

(click pic for hi-res)  North American X-15 on the B-52 wing about 50 years ago

 With all this Felix Baumgartner edge-of-space talk, I found myself getting all misty-eyed thinking about the North American X-15 and the amazing things that little black beast accomplished in the late 50's and early 60's. I figure this is a good time to offer up a couple hi-res CoolPix images for you to gaze at.

 To put it all in perspective, Felix plans to jump from 120,000 feet, but the X-15's highest flight was in 1963 when Joe Walker reached 354,199 feet. However, almost all of the fastest X-15 flights occurred in and around that 120,000 foot altitude. These fastest flights ranged from 3,900 mph all the way up to 4,519 mph! And without question, the X-15 provided so much important data for understanding both the space environment, and the transition from space back into aerodynamic flight.

 I hope you enjoy these two nostalgic pix of one of the most fascinating flying machines ever designed and built, but I also wanna encourage you that I can feel an 'X-15 week' here at AirPigz coming on before long... and wow, that's gonna be cool : )

[In the X-15 days and still today, the USAF and NASA award astronaut wings for flight at 50 miles in altitude (264,000 feet) - thus consided a 'spaceflight', while the FAI considers spaceflight at 100 kilometers (328,000 feet) in altitude]

 (click pic for hi-res) One of the three X-15's built landing on the California lakebed in 1961

Video: Over The Alps With No Engine, Whatcha Gonna Do? Enjoy The Ride : )

 Soaring is still relatively unknown to the average avgeek... I wish I knew what to do to change that. Sailplanes are a fantastic and exhilarating way to fly, and flying some of them over the Alps as this video shows makes for an incredibly amazing adventure. One thing you sure don't need for this adventure is an engine!

 The video can be watched in HD thanx to the GoPro Hero2 cameras used, and you might notice a few of the views are from a camera mounted on a stick and held out thru the open fresh air vent! I love that. In fact, the thumbnail for the video is an example of this. It's also cool to see that the sailplanes are launched with a winch rather than with towplanes. I'm sure not against towplanes, but winches are an extremely affordable method for getting airborne.

 You can also learn a little more about this June 2012 Alps flying adventure by checking out this post at the Devon & Somerset Gliding Club News blog (England) - these guys sure know how to have fun : )

Virgin Galactic: On Track For Powered Flight By The End Of 2012

SpaceShipTwo glide test yesterday in the very blue Mojave sky  (photo: facebook)

 Virgin Galactic is progressing nicely toward the first powered flight of the suborbital space transport system by the end of 2012. Yesterday, a successful glide test with Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay as co-pilot marked the first time a non Scaled Composites pilot has flown the SpaceShipTwo prototype, also known as VSS Enterprise. And a few days earlier on June 26, 2012, VSS Enterprise completed a glide test in addition to the team completing a full duration test firing of the rocket motor for the spacecraft - the first time these two large tasks have been conducted in one day.

Awesome front view of the gliding SpaceShipTwo from yesterday  (photo: facebook)

 The rocket motor firing was performed by Sierra Nevada Space Systems, the prime contractor for the RocketMotor2 (RM2) system. The 55-second test was the thirteenth full-scale flight design RM2 hot fire. All objectives were completed. In addition to this test, on June 20 a full-scale RM2 test firing took place for the first time at Scaled Composites’ test site in Mojave California, under full direction of the spaceship’s Rocket Motor Controller. This firing provided an end-to-end test of the rocket motor systems – a critical step in preparation for powered flight.

Virgin Galactic chief pilot Dave Mackay after his first flight in SS2  (photo: facebook)

 The tasks and goals to be achieved are huge in this test phase for the entire system of mothership, spaceship and rocket motor, but tremendous progress is being made with great success. It sure appears that it won't be long before an actual powered flight takes place which will bring this commercial space venture much closer to putting paying passengers in the cabin of SS2 and giving them the ride of their life! Godspeed Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites!