Comments on: WhiteKnightTwo by Virgin Galactic

By: cpcp

cpcp — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:44:43 +0000

you know i’m right edward.

By: edward

edward — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:03:26 +0000

blah, blah blah.

By: cpcp

cpcp — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:10:46 +0000

yes yes, F1 cars also shatter into shards that cause punctures (unfortunately for Lewis!), but thats the whole point – in a crash you want to dissipate the impact energy and direct it away from the driver. and the only way to do this is the let the material absorb the impact. and composite generally does fail catastrophically into shards.
The skill of the engineer is to put this material in the right orientation and quantity and weave etc etc in the right place so that it can deal with the local stresses. in F1 cars, ocean racing yachts and, aerospace vehicles, there is a weight constraint, which affects performance. so you dont want to put excess material in where its not needed – so the material is placed very carefully to deal with speciofic loading cases only – those which occur during operation. leaving them weak in other scenarios. in the case of F1, the components are very strong and stiff if used properly, but break easily if they are subjected to a load which its not designed for.
anyway. i dont really know much about this stuff, but i doubt you do either, and getting on here talking about how you assume this and assume that is really pointless. i doubt very much that such a groundbreaking vehicle – the first commercial space plane ever – would be designed and developed and tested haphazardly, particularly when its also pioneering an all composite construction. both virgin and scaled composites, you can be sure, are taking every possible measure to ensure that this will be every bit a success as its publicised to be.
so yes, im sure there will be sufficient air trials – and with branson involved you’ll hear about them – they’ll be all over the news every step of the way to the first comm flight

By: edward

edward — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:01:39 +0000

“but concrete has been known to fracture in tension, “.. that’s why it’s reinforced with steel. But the composite struts on an F-1 car shatter on impact into shards that can cut a tire. And seems I read an warning about lack of crash testing on the Boeing composite under development. That from an ex- Boeing aero engr.

By: cpcp

cpcp — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:52:15 +0000

edward, yes its been known to delaminate – under compressive loads mainly. but concrete has been known to fracture in tension, as has glass, and, in general all materials are known to have their weaknesses.
of course there are going to be air trials – did you follow the development of White Knight One at all???