Will Perform Glide Test On The Next Flight

The second SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, flew for the first time in September. That flight resulted in a mountain of data that has been analyzed by the Virgin Galactic team, and now, with additional planned work completed on the aircraft, Virgin Galactic is ready to move into the next phase of flight.

Writing on the Virgin Galactic blog, the company says that the results from September’s test were encouraging enough that the team agreed that no further captive carry flights are needed. The next time VSS Unity takes to the sky, she will be released from the mothership and glide home on her own for the first time ever.

This test will be the first of a sequence of glide test flights. These flights will cumulatively allow us to test and prove the performance of the vehicle in a variety of conditions: both heavy (e.g. simulating the full weight of a load of fuel, oxidizer, and people) and light (with empty tanks) and in between, at a variety of flight path angles and airspeeds, and so forth.

This testing of the “corners of the box” is designed to demonstrate how VSS Unity will perform as it returns from space, after the feather system is retracted and the vehicle becomes a glider and lands on the runway like an airplane. In addition, this phase of flight will also demonstrate and test our abort modes – which culminate in a safe glide back to the runway.

The team of flight test experts has developed a set of requirements for each planned test flight as well as detailing exactly what is needed to test in order to be ready to proceed to the next phase of rocket powered flights. There is no set number of tests in this next phase. The company says it will fly as many flights as are needed to in order to achieve all these objectives.

Our first glide flight will be focused on testing the fundamental performance and handling qualities of VSS Unity. For this first test, vehicle will be kept at a light weight and a “speed limit” of Mach 0.6 will be placed on the pilots (Mach 0.6). After analyzing the results from this test, VSS Unity will be cleared to go faster on subsequent tests.

(Infographic provided by Virgin Galactic)

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com