Scaled Composites Wins X Prize

[leadingedge]

Wow! Did anybody else see that re-entry from 68 Kms up, on news last night!

No computer flying that puppy! Now there's a Job!

I know its a little off topic and things don't spin, but dam was that impressive!

It happend a month ago, but CBC covered it last night- very cool!


link to the company


http://www.scaled.com/

 

[Ryan]

Very cool! I heard that there is a Canadian firm that was going for the X-Prize. If memory serves they are based out of Saskatchewan somewhere and were supposed to launch a few weeks after Rutan's bird. They wouldn't have won the prize since they'd have launched second, but would still be great to see some Canuck hardware in space besides the good old CanadArm.
Anyone else know of whom I'm talking about? I can't remember the name...wonder if they ever managed to make their launch date?

 

[Skywrench]

The DaVinci Project is the Canadian entry you are thinking of. They are based out of Ontario, and were originally going to launch from Kindersley, SK on Oct.2, but thier insurance and Transport Canada approval expired on Oct.31. They haven't got off the ground yet, and everyone including the town of Kindersley has lost faith in them even though team leader Brian Feeney says they are still going to launch sometime.

 

[leadingedge]

Ok, anybody want to explian why this thing doesn't burn up on re-entry?

10,000,000 shot and the ride down must be interesting!

 

[leadingedge]

Here is another cool photo!

 

[Frequent Flyer]

Goodmornig All,

They had a spiel on this on sixty minutes this sunday. Basicall the aircraft works the same as a shuttle cock. The wing actually feathers to an almost perpendicular angle to the fuselage and re enters the atmosphere at a much slower speed than the shuttle but on a much steeper angle. Once back into the earths atmosphere the aircraft re configures to a standard fixed wing and makes a gliding approach to the airport. Very impressive stuff. You should have seen the test pilots fist go around. Talk about pucker factor. Discovery was doing a documentory on the whole thing so it should be out soon. Another worthy note was the budget for the company. 25 million dollars for two trips to space compared to Nasa's billions. Another triumph for private industry. Happy flying.