Archives for April, 2007
Rutan earns spacecraft patent
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Burt Rutan has been awarded U.S. Patent 7,195,207 for his ingenious reconfigurable spacecraft. The design was successfully tested on the SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft where the aft wing sections and tail booms were rotated about 65 degrees upward to create a high-drag mode for reentering the atmosphere. According to the patent documents, the design is also applicable to orbital flight. Rutan’s invention provides a simple alternative to heat shields and rocket burns. With the support of billionaire Richard Branson, Rutan is pioneering space tourism from Mojave, California.
Another Diamond In The Air
Thursday, April 5th, 2007
On April 4th, 2007, less than one year after the first flight of the D-JET, Diamond’s latest design, the single-engine DA50 Super Star took flight at Diamond’s factory in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The maiden flight was flown by Diamond’s Soeren Pederson and Diamond’s CEO and owner Christian Dries, pilot in command. The Diamond DA50 Super Star has a MTOW of 1,660 kg (3,670lbs) and is equipped with a Teledyne Continental TSIOF-550J engine, rated at 350+ HP, with FADEC control and twin turbo chargers.