It was a dumb idea to begin with. It costs MUCH more fuel to launch a heavy transport jet to 35,000 feet... only to then launch a smaller rocket that's attached to the jet into orbit.
Britain needs to simplify. Just launch the smaller rocket from the ground like a normal country.
Instead of launching rockets, they should try resolving their internal issues. Like, for example, dropping their green agenda and negotiating with Russia to drop the sanctions. Stop this ideology nonsense. But this is probably a step too far for the likes of the over-educated and at the same time seemingly low IQ (I wonder how that happened?) Sunak.
Those nurses, who were portrayed as heroes just two short years ago, now face a wage decrease through inflation. Instead of giving them a raise according to inflation, as is usually written in their contracts, they are told to do the right thing and help prevent inflation by not taking a fair raise. So nurses go on strike, during a winter disease spike. Government tries to spin it as greed, or something. But really it is the result of all the misappropriation and ideology they have engaged in these last decades leading to nurses being underpaid and struggling.
It was the widespread miner's strikes that led to Thatcher proclaiming that unions were greedy and needed to be dis-mantled. What followed was the neoliberal revolution and a management style dubbed New Public Management, which was really a euphemism for Public/Private Partnership, and an invitation for the likes of Billionnaires to take over governments - not at all in the interests of the common man.
Maybe, in this case, we will see a resurgence of something like unions, as grass-roots organizations, to fight for public service workers. The alternative is for nurses to remain single (most of them already have children), and live in their cars in the carpark of crumbling hospitals.
The launch vehicle was LauncherOne, with RP-1 and liquid oxygen as propellants. RP-1 is essentially jet fuel, but a finer grade, so slightly more expensive. Liquid oxygen is very cheap by comparison. The benefit is that the air-launch allows a smaller rocket, and the carrier aircraft comes back to be re-used indefinitely.
Interesting subject. Jet A-1 costs ~$3/gallon worldwide. RP-1 rocket fuel costs $93.87/gallon at DoD prices (I didn't expect it to be so expensive, but it is a special grade and is not produced at the same scale as jet fuel, Diesel fuel, or gasoline). Liquid oxygen is available industrially at $0.13/cubic meter, or $0.09/metric ton, or $0.0005/gallon (that's 5/100 of one cent per gallon...bottled water costs orders of magnitude more). Here's the sauce. https://www.intratec.us/chemical-markets/oxygen-price
A rocket liquid oxygen tank is just a steel or aluminum fuselage, no insulation. The liquid is allowed to boil off after filling. Typically, a layer of frost will surround the tank exterior (see this on photos of the X-15 carried aloft).
Bottom line is that rocket propellant cost is not a problem. The rest of the rocket is the expensive part, and air launch allows the whole expendable package to be smaller for the payload delivered to orbit.
I will relent. I did my search on "liquid oxygen" but I now see that the source material is ambiguous---and I am running into dead ends trying to find alternative price data. So, if we construe the source data as gaseous oxygen, that would involve a proportionality factor of about 1000, leading to a price point nearer $0.50/gallon or $90/tonne. It gets more expensive in smaller quantities, so if you are not used to tonnes of the stuff, our numbers may be compatible. The point being, it is not very expensive for rocket propellant. (I am also relying on what I remember from DoD pricing specifications from the 1960s, in which it was nearly at the point of water.)
Jet engines are nice, but they can't get into space, so what is your point? That it is better to use an airplane to get part of the way there? Welcome to air launch. (I once worked for a design supervisor that was enamored of air launch, to the point of designing configurations to be launched from the topside of a 747. Some of these launch vehicles were as big as a 767 fuselage! The basic idea goes back to a science fiction story by Otto Willi Gail in 1928.)
Britain is too far north to launch successfully, it needs to move nearer to the equator. That nice Mr Musk might be able to tow the British isles further south.
Only problem is that it is a "smaller rocket" (less expensive) only if it is air-launched at altitude. Higher propulsive efficiency. Airplane fuel is cheap compared to rocket vehicle weight. This was the basis of the original Pegasus air-launched launch vehicle.
If you launch the same payload from the ground, the rocket could easily be twice the size of the air-launched version.
Welcome to the world of space launch. Nothing more problematic than the reliability of debut launch systems. (The first Vanguard satellite blew up on the pad.) No conspiracies required.
It was a dumb idea to begin with. It costs MUCH more fuel to launch a heavy transport jet to 35,000 feet... only to then launch a smaller rocket that's attached to the jet into orbit.
Britain needs to simplify. Just launch the smaller rocket from the ground like a normal country.
Instead of launching rockets, they should try resolving their internal issues. Like, for example, dropping their green agenda and negotiating with Russia to drop the sanctions. Stop this ideology nonsense. But this is probably a step too far for the likes of the over-educated and at the same time seemingly low IQ (I wonder how that happened?) Sunak.
Those nurses, who were portrayed as heroes just two short years ago, now face a wage decrease through inflation. Instead of giving them a raise according to inflation, as is usually written in their contracts, they are told to do the right thing and help prevent inflation by not taking a fair raise. So nurses go on strike, during a winter disease spike. Government tries to spin it as greed, or something. But really it is the result of all the misappropriation and ideology they have engaged in these last decades leading to nurses being underpaid and struggling.
It was the widespread miner's strikes that led to Thatcher proclaiming that unions were greedy and needed to be dis-mantled. What followed was the neoliberal revolution and a management style dubbed New Public Management, which was really a euphemism for Public/Private Partnership, and an invitation for the likes of Billionnaires to take over governments - not at all in the interests of the common man.
Maybe, in this case, we will see a resurgence of something like unions, as grass-roots organizations, to fight for public service workers. The alternative is for nurses to remain single (most of them already have children), and live in their cars in the carpark of crumbling hospitals.
Jet fuel is a lot cheaper than rocket fuel.
The launch vehicle was LauncherOne, with RP-1 and liquid oxygen as propellants. RP-1 is essentially jet fuel, but a finer grade, so slightly more expensive. Liquid oxygen is very cheap by comparison. The benefit is that the air-launch allows a smaller rocket, and the carrier aircraft comes back to be re-used indefinitely.
No --- even the tank is expensive.
Interesting subject. Jet A-1 costs ~$3/gallon worldwide. RP-1 rocket fuel costs $93.87/gallon at DoD prices (I didn't expect it to be so expensive, but it is a special grade and is not produced at the same scale as jet fuel, Diesel fuel, or gasoline). Liquid oxygen is available industrially at $0.13/cubic meter, or $0.09/metric ton, or $0.0005/gallon (that's 5/100 of one cent per gallon...bottled water costs orders of magnitude more). Here's the sauce. https://www.intratec.us/chemical-markets/oxygen-price
A rocket liquid oxygen tank is just a steel or aluminum fuselage, no insulation. The liquid is allowed to boil off after filling. Typically, a layer of frost will surround the tank exterior (see this on photos of the X-15 carried aloft).
Bottom line is that rocket propellant cost is not a problem. The rest of the rocket is the expensive part, and air launch allows the whole expendable package to be smaller for the payload delivered to orbit.
Liquid Oxygen ---- as a liquid --- will be in the ballpark of $1-$2/pound
A jet engine gets it for free from the air.
I will relent. I did my search on "liquid oxygen" but I now see that the source material is ambiguous---and I am running into dead ends trying to find alternative price data. So, if we construe the source data as gaseous oxygen, that would involve a proportionality factor of about 1000, leading to a price point nearer $0.50/gallon or $90/tonne. It gets more expensive in smaller quantities, so if you are not used to tonnes of the stuff, our numbers may be compatible. The point being, it is not very expensive for rocket propellant. (I am also relying on what I remember from DoD pricing specifications from the 1960s, in which it was nearly at the point of water.)
Jet engines are nice, but they can't get into space, so what is your point? That it is better to use an airplane to get part of the way there? Welcome to air launch. (I once worked for a design supervisor that was enamored of air launch, to the point of designing configurations to be launched from the topside of a 747. Some of these launch vehicles were as big as a 767 fuselage! The basic idea goes back to a science fiction story by Otto Willi Gail in 1928.)
Britain is too far north to launch successfully, it needs to move nearer to the equator. That nice Mr Musk might be able to tow the British isles further south.
Only problem is that it is a "smaller rocket" (less expensive) only if it is air-launched at altitude. Higher propulsive efficiency. Airplane fuel is cheap compared to rocket vehicle weight. This was the basis of the original Pegasus air-launched launch vehicle.
If you launch the same payload from the ground, the rocket could easily be twice the size of the air-launched version.
Spitfire was a great plane. P-51 was crap until they put a Merlin engine in it. Just saying...
F4-U Corsair, still my all time favorite!
Whispering Death to the Japs. Can I say that? Japs? 😂
The P-51's Merlin engine was a British design, but built under license by Packard.
It was probably made with Jaguar parts.
And the electrics were from Lucas, the Prince of Darkness.
Weren't they the company that made the Write-Only memory?
more likely sabotage!!
Welcome to the world of space launch. Nothing more problematic than the reliability of debut launch systems. (The first Vanguard satellite blew up on the pad.) No conspiracies required.