Thoughts from Bill Whittle. I’d note, though, that Siebold was actually unaware that Alsbury had unlocked the feathers. That information came from the cockpit camera, I think.
[Update a while later]
Commercial space setbacks, and why we need to move forward.
Someone should write a book about that.
As always, Whittle delivers though it is my understanding the info was from a cockpit camera, not the pilot.
One other nit – from what I’ve read, SpaceShipOne used air pressure and not hydraulics to feather the tail. It had separate compressed air bottles for each tail boom with full crossfeed capabilities. I don’t know about how they did it on SpaceShipTwo but it seems likely it also used compressed air.
The sentiment is a kind benediction on the incident.
Indeed it is. But VG should have hired Red West to give the pilots a cold icy stare, chomp his cigar, and say “Don’t you break my airplane.”