Page 8 - Aerotech News and Review, September 17, 2021

AIAA hosts an evening with Stratolaunch

Stratolaunch carrier aircraft, from the “I was actually able to gather some
start of conceptual sketches until the sketches that were made, casual ideas
first flight, was to carry rockets to an that were just archived over the years.”
advantageous altitude that would allow He showed a Burt Rutan sketch that
for launching from flexible locations.” was from April 1990. “It’s a doodle
Showing a slide that described sep- of a centrally loaded carrier with an
aration of rocket from Stratolaunch, offset pilot. This is the first manifesta-
Hutchinson said, “Understanding the tion of that offset pilot on this carrier
safe separation and careful mitigation configuration.”
of associated risks for separation is “From the conceptual layout, from
where Stratolaunch shines.” the very beginning, Burt begins con-
sidering the experience of the launch
Big Launcher History as an attractive feature that includes
“This is an old idea that has been an observer station in the aircraft and
around for a long time. In the 1940s, in this case you can see observers in
the original H-4 Hercules Hughes con- the right hand fuselage, just behind
cept looks familiar. Then in the 1960s, the crew. So, he is from the beginning
they needed an aircraft to carry the seeing what that experience would be
Space Shuttle,” Hutchinson explained, like.”
showing a photo of a twin hull C-5 Another sketch showed the Space-
concept that Lockheed had considered ShipOne and carrier aircraft White
for that task. The low wing design of Knight emerging in Burt’s drawings.
the top launch 747 design was favored Hutchinson explained that the concept
Stratolaunch photograph over the high wing design of the C-5 really began to blossom when other
The Stratolaunch and hangar at the Mojave Air and Space Port. concept mostly because of the number engineers joined with Rutan to design
of mods that were needed. a carrier aircraft that would reuse the
by Cathy Hansen the company also stands on high val- gram, focusing on material interaction Hutchinson showed a sketch of an- major airline systems and components.
special to Aerotech News ues: Deliver today; Grow for tomorrow of laser engagement. It was a lifelong
and Accuracy and Integrity always. interest in experimental aviation de-
A remarkable and exciting presenta- “What we are offering is flight test sign that later drew him to Scaled
tion was streamed via Zoom on Aug. services for the hypersonics communi- Composites. It is there that he gained
31, 2021, spotlighting the largest fly- ty,” said Krevor. “We have transitioned experience in design, build, and testing
ing airplane in the world — the six- ownership under Mr. Paul Allen and of the SpaceShipTwo feather deploy-
engine, composite Stratolaunch carrier our current owner is Cerberus Capital ment system. Soon after, he completed
aircraft that will launch hypersonic test Management, a private equity group,” the White Knight Two landing gear de-
vehicles. “We are fully funded to bring hyper- sign and release system and saw them
Detailed information was shared sonic flight test to the aerospace com- through flight test. From there, Mason
about designing, building and flying munity,” Krevor said. “We have tran- led the Flight Controls design team on
this giant machine that has been given sitioned our headquarters from Seattle the Stratolaunch aircraft. Currently,
the nicknamed of “Roc,” as a tribute to down to Mojave Air and Space Port.” Mason works for Stratolaunch as the
the giant bird of Arabian and Persian The aircraft features a twin-fuse- lead engineer for the Release System
mythology. lage design and the longest wingspan for the Talon hypersonic unmanned
Dr. Zachary C. Krevor, Stratolaunch ever flown, at 385 feet, surpassing the system.
LLC chief operating officer, gave Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat of “I started my career with an adven-
opening remarks. He is responsible for 321 feet. The flight crew is in the right ture through model aviation and I’ve
fuselage and the flight data systems are been a model aviator my entire life;
located in the left fuselage. and as a matter of fact Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch, the multi-vehi- enabled me to appear in my favorite
cle launch platform, will carry a magazine, which is Model Aviation
550,000-pound payload and has a magazine, in 2020.
1,300,000-pound maximum takeoff “I came aboard to design the me- Screenshot
weight. chanical flight control system and I
have been here ever since the first roll The Burt Rutan sketch.
of carbon fiber fabric showed up to
build the airplane, all the way through
to today,” Hutchinson said. “So, I other offering, moving the wing of the He described it as, “The winning com-
have been present for each of the two 747 to a high wing model with two fu- bination of this idea of this configura-
flights, and involved with the design selages and shuttle carried underneath, tion.”
and build of the airplane every single which was also considered. Again, the In August 200 they had a 3-D model
month of its progress. extensive modifications that would be with more people working on the con-
“I am a lifelong aviator and got my needed was the obvious obstacle to cept. He showed another pencil sketch
roots working in Mojave at Scaled this concept. that Rutan had drawn and said, “It’s
Stratolaunch photograph He showed an image of the Conroy not that Burt is simply a great aircraft
Dr. Zachary C. Krevor, CEO of Composites and have a lot of experi- Virtus ultra heavy cargo lifter that he designer; his approach to design is
ence working with landing gears and
Stratolaunch LLC. had researched on the Internet, with mission-centric. He identifies ways in
systems, so I am a systems designer”
he said. a ‘Hershey Bar’ wing which he ex- which he can utilize each design to ful-
“I am passionate about the Strato- plained was theoretically easy to build fill the mission. It’s not uniqueness for
overseeing many of the programmatic launch aircraft,” Hutchinson said. “Be- and better for range, but this was a the sake of being unique, it is unique-
and operations functions of Strato- ing an engineer here, I enjoy getting to twin fuselage which was derived from ness to achieve a goal.”
launch, including oversight of the car- Stratolaunch photograph work on all areas of the program. B-52s and used the jet engines off of A Bronco-type tail was considered
rier aircraft, conversion of the carrier Mason Hutchinson, Stratolaunch lead “This is the Model 351 Stratolaunch the B-52. “Look at that wing configu- before, with the cockpit placement at
aircraft into a mobile launch platform, engineer. Carrier Aircraft originally built by ration, he’s on to something here,” said the top of the fin, but it was actually
and leadership for many of the busi- Scaled Composites. Although we are Hutchinson. heavier than the two-cruciform tail
ness functions. no longer part of Scaled Composites, configuration that was finally decided
The vision of Stratolaunch is Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft Stratolaunch is a stand-alone company Configuration evolution on. A cruciform tail is an aircraft em-
‘Breaking Barriers’ and their mission Development History: Mason and this is known as the Stratolaunch “Given the history of launchers, pennage configuration which, when
is advancing high speed technology Hutchinson, Lead Engineer — Aircraft and our current mission is to the evolution of this concept and this viewed from the aircraft’s front or rear,
through innovative design, manufac- An Insider’s Perspective offer high speed flight test services that design from Burt Rutan’s sketches, looks much like a cross.
turing and operation of world-class Mason Hutchison started his en- Zach just mentioned.” all the way up to today, the configura- Hutchinson said, “I liked the idea of
aerospace vehicles. gineering career at Ball Aerospace, Hutchinson described the purpose tion that we are flying actually takes
Krevor’s opening slide showed that working on the Airborne Laser pro- of the carrier aircraft by saying, “The an interesting path,” said Hutchinson. See STRATOLAUNCH, Page 10
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