Category Archives: Business

Business, Space

The Desert Hurricane

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Virgin Galactic has a press release out:

Hurricane Provides Dramatic End to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Event

At the start of a dramatic week of weather right across the US, hurricane force winds hit Mojave Air and Spaceport CA on the evening of Monday 7th December, tearing apart a specially created site which had been used throughout the day to house guests attending the first roll out of Virgin Galactic’s new spaceship.

Along with Sir Richard Branson and spaceship designer Burt Rutan, over 800 press, future astronauts and VIP guests including Governors Bill Richardson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie and Victoria Principal had gathered in the desert to witness the roll out of the world’s first commercial manned spaceship. Standing at the end of the runway, guests braved gale force winds and stormy weather, to see SpaceShipTwo for the first time. The spaceship was carried down the runway as snow fell, by her mothership, VMS Eve, to a spectacular display of lights and music.

A few hours later as guests celebrated, an evacuation was called by local officials who had become aware of the approaching storm. Sir Richard Branson said: “It was absolutely incredible, the roll out of the spaceship had been fantastic and everybody was filled with terrific energy. We were all in the tents when the evacuation was called. 20 minutes after the last of the 800 guests had been coached away, the main 200ft tent literally took off”. Gusts were reported of up to 116MPH, and local residents commented that the Mojave area had not experienced such a combination of high winds, rain and freezing temperatures for over two decades. Both spaceship and mothership were unscathed thanks to the rapid action of the crew as were all guests thanks to an efficient evacuation to waiting buses.

Sir Richard Branson added: “We were fully expecting to be blown away by our beautiful new spaceship but got a little more than we bargained for!”

I have to say, despite my earlier criticism, that this could have been a lot worse, and they did do a good job of getting everyone out quickly. No one was even injured, and some, even many could have been killed without the warning.

Business, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

Your Stimulus Dollars At Work

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Some supposedly egregious examples. But I wanted to focus on this one:

$4.7 million for Lockheed Martin to study supersonic corporate jet travel

Now, I don’t know much about this money, or what its actual purpose is. Is it to just study the market? It’s not enough money to do anything serious in terms of advancing the tech, unless perhaps it’s for CFD.

But I don’t think that it’s necessarily intrinsically a bad thing for the federal government to be spending money on, though I think that it’s quite likely that the money will be wasted. More efficient supersonic jets are, after all, a green technology, and they could lead the way to cost-effective supersonic transports, so it could in theory be a good federal investment. The question is: is it appropriate for the government to be making such investments, or should we rely on the industry?

Well, the problem is that most of the industry, at least the big airframers like LM, don’t believe in R&D. At least not as a cost of doing business. They view it as a profit center — that is, they see it as simply another source of revenue, whether provided by the government, or some other customer. But they rarely put their own money into it. Neither does Boeing. Because for decades, they have become conditioned and inured to avoid it, instead going hat in hand to Uncle Sugar for R&D funds, which is happy to hand them out, even on boondoggles. I think that this is one of the reasons that we haven’t seen much aviation innovation — because the people who actually build airplanes aren’t willing to spend their own money on it. Of course, the regulatory and liability environment are also significant factors.

[Afternoon update]

I assume that this is what is being referred to:

The work will focus on “systems-level experimental validation activities” and is part of the NASA aeronautics research mission directorate fundamental aeronautics programme’s supersonics project. Managed by NASA’s Glenn Research Center, the supersonics project is to provide proven capabilities that address the efficiency, environmental and performance challenges of supersonic aircraft. The studies also seek to identify potential requirements for future supersonic aircraft, assess the effectiveness of technology today and identify new research opportunities.

As I said, don’t expect much useful to come from the money. I could do a lot more with it.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Real Fat-Cat Party

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Thoughts from Jonah Goldberg:

My biggest objection is not to what isn’t true about the claim that the Right is the handmaiden to big business, it’s to what is true. Too many Republicans think being pro-business is the same as being pro-market. They defend the status quo against bad reforms and think they’ve defended economic freedom. The status quo stinks. And the sooner Republicans learn that, the sooner they’ll deserve to win again.

Of course, there are a lot of things they’ll have to learn to deserve to win again.

Business, Space

The Virgin PR Fiasco

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I’ve been thinking about it, and this can’t be good for VG. They invite a lot of high-falutin’ people, including a lot of wealthy customers, subject them first to chilling winds and cold to see the vehicle, then have them party in a cold tent with iced vodka, after checking their coats and valuables. Then they quickly herd them outside in subfreezing temperatures and hurricane-force winds without their coats and other things, waiting in the chill blast for buses, shortly after which the tent collapses. Many of them are only now starting to get their belongings back, which were scattered across the desert and probably stopped only by the east fence of the airport. And Burt is saying “I told you so”:

…we drive past Schwarzenegger’s private jet as it taxis along the runway. It has been held on the ground for two hours because the wind was too strong to take off. Moments later we pass the party tent, which has now been reduced to a pile of tarpaulin and twisted metal. “I told them it was a bad idea to hold the event in this weather,” says Rutan.

Throwing a party isn’t rocket science, and it’s supposed to be something in Sir Richard’s wheel house. I wonder how many “future astronauts” had their faith shaken in the company’s ability to fly them safely?