I almost read 'faster than speed of light', my jaw dropped...But then it was sound. A great feat, nevertheless.
Virgin Galactic goes faster than speed of sound in flight test
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Re: Virgin Galactic goes faster than speed of sound in flight test
#42Maybe the physics or the finances aren't there, but I would imagine that an excellent use for sub-orbital near-spaceflight would be to get between two distant cities (Tokyo and London) extremely quickly. Virgin Galactic would seem to be poised to execute on this, if there is a market for it.
That route would make a lot of sense since both London and Tokyo are major financial centers. Tokyo - Frankfurt would be great as well since (a) Germany and Japan have a lot of ties in their manufacturing industries (ex: autos) and (b) since Frankfurt is the international air-travel hub of Europe.
Both Hong Kong and Singapore are larger financial centers than Tokyo. I agree about Frankfurt -- in Europe, Geneva, Zurich, and Frankfurt are all about the same size.
Re: Virgin Galactic goes faster than speed of sound in flight test
#43Can anyone speak to the significance of this achievement, considering that reaching low earth orbit requires something like Mach 24?
Branson is very good at 'blowing his own trumpet'. All he seems to doing on this project is providing money and grabbing as much publicity as he can, Burt Rutan's people seem to be the ones doing the real work.
> All he seems to doing on this project is providing money
How do you propose this would happen without Branson's investment? Space tourism seems like a pretty risky business proposition to me, and I think he deserves credit for backing it with actual money, rather than words.