EAA Sport Aviation - February 2012

FLIGHTLINE

INDUSTRY AND COMMUNITY NEWS

FAA ADMINISTRATOR
RANDY BABBITT RESIGNS

A rendering of the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft, which sports a 385-foot wingspan.

IN THE WAKE OF HIS ARREST for driving
while intoxicated, FAA Administrator
Randy Babbitt resigned his position.

Babbitt was charged with DWI by Fairfax, Virginia, police after they saw him driving on the wrong side of the road on December 5. There was no accident, and Babbitt reportedly was cooperative throughout the process. Babbitt was alone in his vehicle; he was released pending a court action scheduled for February. No details of the event, such as his blood alcohol level, have been released by the police.

Deputy Administrator Michael
Huerta has been named acting FAA
administrator. Babbitt had been in the
post since June of 2009.

Next Step
to Space

Allen, Rutan announce Stratolaunch System
for commercial space launches

BURT RUTAN REUNITED with entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen in Seattle on December 13 to announce what they called “a revolutionary approach to space transportation: an air-launch system to provide orbital access to space with greater safety, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility.” Stratolaunch Systems, like their SpaceShipOne collaboration seven years ago, uses a mother ship to lift a vehicle to altitude, release it, then return to Earth as the launch vehicle rockets into space. While SS1 was proof of concept, Stratolaunch Systems is a commercial application.

This project will be a collaboration involving Scaled Composites, which will build the carrier aircraft; a multistage booster, manufactured by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX); and a state-of-the-art mating and integration system built by aerospace engineering leader Dynetics. First flight of the carrier aircraft is envisioned in 2015.

The carrier aircraft will be the largest aircraft ever built, with a wingspan of 385 feet, dwarfing the 211 feet of a Boeing 747-400. The carrier has a twin fuselage like Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnight Two with a large spar between them to which the launch vehicle attaches. Six 747 engines will propel its more than 1. 2 million pounds gross weight up to 1,300 nautical miles.

JETMAN FLIES FORMATION
WITH L- 39 ALBATROSES

CHALK UP ANOTHER FIRST for Yves Rossy, better known as Jetman. Rossy, who wears a jet-powered carbon fiber wing and flies like a bird, flew in formation with two L-39C Albatros planes from the Breitling Jet Team over the Swiss Alps.

Jetman’s previous firsts include flying over the English Channel, flying formation with the Breitling Wingwalkers aboard a pair of Stearman biplanes, flying loops around a hot air balloon, and, most recently, soaring over the Grand Canyon.

According to Breitling’s report, Rossy rode a helicopter to altitude in Switzerland, jumped off, ignited the four jet engines, then joined up with the two L-39s for several minutes of formation flying. He controls his trajectory and altitude through body movements until, when ready to land, he parachutes safely to the ground.