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back to article Our Vulture 2 spaceplane sprouts sleek pointy beak

The nylon dust has almost settled on the epic design and build saga of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane as 3D printer 3T RPD Ltd fires up the machine to craft the last pieces of our revolutionary aircraft. Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, the crack design team of Southampton Uni postgrads …

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  1. Harvey Trowell
    Thumb Up

    Great work

    Looking good! Nice work chaps. The only downside is poor old Vulture 1 is starting to look like a spray painted egg box by comparison. Where is the old girl resting up, anyway? The Smithsonian?

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  2. DJO Silver badge

    Yes, but

    Very nice, only where is the intrepid playmanaut going to sit? I see no cockpit.

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    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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      Re: Yes, but

      The playmonaut will have to sit inside. In the time scale available, we couldn't resolve the issue of a cockpit canopy which wouldn't get ripped right off at launch. We do have possibility of resolving this issue with a redesigned nose upper section.

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      1. DJO Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Yes, but

        Lester, can't argue with that.

        I suppose you could paint a trompe-l'œil cockpit canopy occupied by a smiling playmonaut, perhaps smoking a pipe to maintain conceptual continuity.

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        1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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          Re: Re: Yes, but

          It is a shame our man doesn't have a window, but we'd rather he didn't lose his canopy and his head in short order. Trompe-l'œil? Hmmm...

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          1. IT Drone
            Reply Icon

            Re: Yes, but

            Perhaps learn from the Mercury program where engineers saw astronauts simply as passengers but reacted to complaints and included a hatch with explosive bolts, a decent-sized window and manual controls? All lovingly rendered in trompe-l'œil, of course - http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/lores/S61-03698.jpg

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  3. Vociferous

    You're really taking it to another level here

    It appears the ambitiousness of your projects rise exponentially. At this rate you'll be flying manned missions to Mars in two year's time.

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    1. Ottman001
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      Re: You're really taking it to another level here

      Blimey, up vote for optimism. After LOHAN the next step is to develop a craft capable of achieving escape velocity. Might the UN get a bit tetchy if El Reg develops a missile program? Or Apple?

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Stop

        Re: You're really taking it to another level here

        Escape velocity only applies to ballistic trajectories.

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        1. Martin Budden Silver badge
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          Go

          Re: You're really taking it to another level here

          Escape velocity doesn't only apply to ballistic trajectories. For example, Luna 1 achieved escape velocity way back in 1959, and its multi-stage launch vehicle did not follow a ballistic trajectory.

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  4. Pen-y-gors

    Who needs Skylon?

    Scale this baby up a bit and Britain will have an independent orbital launch capability.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who needs Skylon?

      ...in Spain

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why not?

    Glue said Playmonaut to the underside of the fusilage?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why not?

      That would be cruel! I should report you to the RPPS (Royal Playmonaut Protection Society, in case you didn't know)!

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOHAN is looking dead sexy! Speaking purely as an aviation geek, that is.

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  7. jubtastic1

    Nice Arse

    Reminds me of a Flying wing style bomber.

    It's all looking very fine chaps, carry on.

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  8. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Something in that shape reminds me of Victor

    This Victor

    Great looking design for LOHAN

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  9. PC Paul

    Does it only have rudders?

    Does it really only have rudders?

    I know it already has two control surfaces more than Vulture 1 had and that's laudable, but just rudders seems like a bit of an issue if that's the case. Or does it have elevons as well (in which case rudders are a bit excessive...)

    Has anyone built a foam mockup of this to check how it flies, where the CG should be etc.? It shouldn't be too difficult to do as an RC model and could easily be tested at high speeds with a ducted fan motor or even hobby rockets.

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    1. Eddy Ito
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      Re: Does it only have rudders?

      Judging from the mount, it looks like the canard will be functional providing pitch control.

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      1. PC Paul
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        Re: Does it only have rudders?

        You're right, well spotted. That should work well once it has enough air to bite into, and the canards do look big enough to work.

        I'm looking forward to seeing the test flights...

        What are the plans for that?

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        1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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          Re: Re: Does it only have rudders?

          Wait and see ;-)

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    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
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      Facepalm

      Re: Does it only have rudders?

      "Has anyone built a foam mockup of this to check how it flies"

      That's a good idea. Build a sort of, what do we call it, prototype, yeah, that's it, a prototype. Maybe we could use some of that newfangled nylon on one of those clever 3D printers often that are supposed to be good for "rapid, one off, prototyping". Great idea!

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      1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
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        Re: Re: Does it only have rudders?

        Blimey - what a fantastic idea. We'll look into it immediately before we build the full-fat titanium version. While we're at it, we're going to print up a prototype commentard-slapping device, codename MODERATRIX. Backronym suggestions welcome.

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        1. Ottman001
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          Re: Does it only have rudders?

          Means Of Delivering Effortless Retaliation Against The Really IneXcusable

          E could alternatively be for Excruciating, depending how sadistic the device.

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    3. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
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      Boffin

      Re: Does it only have rudders?

      I design and fly model slope-soarers, and I wonder about the use of wingtip rudders on a high aspect-ratio wing like that.

      The rudders will have a secondary effect of drag, and that will be acting at quite a distance from the CG. It might not be an issue at low deflections, but you might find that at high deflections the model drops the inside wing and goes into a spin. Although the rudders should keep biting the air during such a spin, it's never a good idea to put a lot of weight in the wingtips of a plane prone to spinning - it makes it hard to recover.

      Still, if somone's tested the design, maybe it's fine....

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      1. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Does it only have rudders?

        ....Oh, and I'd expect to find the craft VERY twitchy in yaw, as any sideways swing will present the side of the fin to the airflow and increase drag at the end of the wing again, tending to increase the swing...

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      2. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Re: Does it only have rudders?

        Let's wait and see how it flies, eh?

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  10. Crisp

    Knocking up a model of it in Kerbal Space Program now

    It looks like it should fly!

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    1. Ian Yates
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      Pint

      Re: Knocking up a model of it in Kerbal Space Program now

      Obligatory: http://xkcd.com/1244/

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  11. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    I feel I should make a pointed comment.

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  12. IT Drone
    Black Helicopters

    Wot no laser cannon mounting point?

    The recent story of Russian cosmonauts removing the ISS "External Onboard Laser (Communications, hem-hem) System" got me to wondering...

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