From the battlefield into space
Everyone has probably heard that the American company Scaled Composites is creating the largest (with some reservations) aircraft in history, having two fuselages and serving as a platform for launching space rockets. Although the brainchild of Scaled Composites is much inferior to Mriya in terms of weight and length, the promising aircraft is much larger in wingspan: 117 meters versus 88. One of the founders of the company was Paul Allen, who died last year, known primarily as one of the co-founders of Microsoft Corporation. Actually, the very concept of the Stratolaunch Model 351 has been known for a long time: it is called "air launch". In this case, the rocket is launched in the sky. Russian developments in this direction were associated, first of all, with the MAKS system. And at one time, Ukraine tried to use the An-225 for the Svityaz and Lybid aerospace systems. None of the above has come to fruition.
Length: 73 m
Wingspan: 117.3 m
Height: 4.69 m
Empty weight: 226, 596 kg
Normal takeoff weight: 340, 194 kg
Maximum takeoff weight: 589, 670 kg
External payload: 250,000 kg
Engine six x Pratt & Whitney PW4056 252 thrust, 4 kN each
It is important to note that the Scaled Composites project does not stand still: on the eve of the first flight, the aircraft has already completed high-speed runs along the runway. Before that, it was dispersed to medium, and even earlier - to low speed. That is, the company has serious plans and, apparently, will not abandon the project.
Mysterious "wunderwaffe"
The aircraft is positioned as a tool for civilian rocketry. Meanwhile, Quartz was recently published in the material “Paul Allen built the world’s biggest plane. Does anyone need it? " drew attention to some inconsistencies. A decade ago, the global rocket industry was in crisis. However, now everything has changed and it's not just the new Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX - the world leader in the number of space launches. In addition to Musk, companies Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, United Launch Alliance and Northrop Grumman have recently made themselves known. A newcomer to the market in the person of the New Zealand private company Rocket Lab with its light and very cheap Electron rocket, which, by the way, has already made several successful launches, can also "shoot".
That is, most likely, there is simply no place in the world for a new operator of space launches: there is a real struggle for the market and the leaders, in general, have long been known. In addition, the very concept of an air launch has significant disadvantages.
- At an altitude of more than 30 km, a decrease in air density sharply reduces the aerodynamic advantages of an airplane wing;
- High requirements for payload reliability (satellites are often developed with the requirement to withstand only axial overloads);
- Very high requirements for the carrier engines, which must provide it with high speed at high altitude;
- Technological risks associated with the overall complexity of the concept;
- The risk of losing an expensive aircraft and crew members.
In this regard, one can recall the Virgin Group, which also uses the concept of air launch. Keep in mind, however, that Richard Branson's goals have long been known: suborbital tourism. To put it bluntly, its apparatus has little in common with the Stratolaunch Model 351, although the launch method is the same.
According to Quartz, Stratolaunch Systems still has an advantage: if the plane is fine-tuned, it will be able to put cargo into orbit, even if the weather is bad and will not allow launching a conventional rocket. Let's analyze this issue in more detail. The postponement for commercial customers is practically irrelevant. At the same time, this problem can become critical when it comes to military spacecraft. In support of its hypothesis, the publication claims that US Vice President Mike Pence and US Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson recently visited Stratolaunch Systems facilities. At the same time, the company could not answer Quartz's question about the number of employees: only about fifty employees have a description on LinkedIn, a popular service for business connections. Why such secrecy for a civilian company is not clear. By the way, SpaceX can provide data on 7000 employees, and Blue Origin - 1500. That is, in simple terms, about everyone (or almost everyone) who works there at all.
Perhaps the true goals of Stratolaunch Systems will become clearer when you consider the intended payload. Last summer, the company talked about which vehicles it wants to launch using its aircraft. One of the announced - Medium Launch Vehicle (MLV) - has a carrying capacity of 3.5 tons and will be able to lift the load to an altitude of 400 km. Then there is MLV Heavy: in principle, the same thing, only with a higher carrying capacity. Most of all, the media was interested in a spaceplane similar to the mysterious Boeing X-37 (experts still argue why the Americans needed this orbital plane). The problem is that Stratolaunch recently gave up on developing its own missiles. Instead, the company wants to use the Pegasus XL launch vehicle developed by Orbital ATK. Recall that the Pegasus is a multifunctional rocket that can be launched usually or from a carrier aircraft, as Stratolaunch Systems wants. The mass of the payload launched into low-earth orbit by the carrier can reach 443 kg. In modern classification, it is a light launch vehicle. The Pegasus XL has many missions for NASA under its belt. In theory, the rocket can be used for some military launches, although its capabilities, of course, have quite obvious limitations.
Instead of a conclusion
In fact, it is very difficult to support this or that point of view on this issue. In favor of the "conspiracy theory" is the fact that in America (and in other countries too) any military special operation may well be disguised as a peace project, while not sparing funds to misinform the enemy. Recently, former oceanographer Robert Ballard, who became famous after the discovery of the Titanic, said that the search for the legendary steamer was in fact a secret mission to find sunken American submarines.
There have also been projects of large aircraft carrying spacecraft in the history of the United States. For example, at one time they created Conroy Virtus, a two-body transport aircraft for transporting the Space Shuttle shuttle. It is easy to see that such a large and expensive project was part of an even larger program aimed at retaining US superiority in space exploration, which was an important component of the geopolitical game. So maybe the Stratolaunch Model 351 is really being built for a reason. Most likely, soon we ourselves will find out everything.
