Re: Rutan spaceplane

Brian Burger schrieb:
> Cool stuff here - Burt Rutan (of Voyager & other
> interesting aircraft) has rolled out a complete spaceplane system
which might 
> win the X-Prize by the end of the year...
> 
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/902224.asp?0sl=-44
> 
> .. but my first thought at seeing the pics of the two-part vehicle
was,
> "Dog, if Jon produced a model that funny-looking, nobody'd buy it and
we'd
> all have said how 'unrealistic' it looked!"
> 
> Real life is stranger than fiction...

If I read the article correctly - there is a fair bit of hype - it is
not a spaceplane as most people understand the word, namely that it can
reach orbit and stay there. It just can climb above the athmosphere and
drop back, like, say, the old X-15. 

Greetings
Karl Heinz