Last Flight of 6-story Roton Forced to Abort
FYI,
Last Flight of 6-story Roton Forced to Abort
Antelope Valley Press
http://www.avpress.com/n/susty1.hts
: It was to be "The Last Flight of the Roton," but the flight was not
: nearly as long as organizers hoped. The last vestige of an attempt
: to create a low-cost space-launch system, the Roton ATV was headed
: from its birthplace at the Mojave Airport for display at Classic
: Rotors, a helicopter museum located at the Ramona Airport.
: The effort to carry the six-story, cone-shaped vehicle, created by
: Rotary Rocket, beneath an Army helicopter ran into unexpected
: difficulties once airborne and the two never left the airfield.
: "It's back to the drawing board," said Mark DiCiero, operations
: director for Classic Rotors. "We just have to figure out a way to
: carry it in a different way.
: After a few tense moments, the helicopter slowly rose, pulling the
: Roton off the ground. Dangling the Roton beneath it, the Chinook
: headed north across the airfield. As it did, the massive rocket
: began swaying increasingly side-to-side.
: While those planning the move had anticipated that the Roton would
: rotate in flight, no one had expected the side-to-side movement.
: It proved to be too severe for the helicopter to handle, and the
: crew returned to the flightline to set down the Roton.
: All together, the pair was airborne about 20 minutes.
: Another unforeseen problem came once the Roton vehicle was safely
: back on the ground. As the helicopter was disengaging its hook from
: the vehicle, it bobbled briefly and the rotor head atop the Roton
: pierced the sheet metal underside of the Chinook.
: The size and shape of the vehicle is the unusual part of this
: mission, he said. The weight - about 10,000 pounds - is actually a
: little lighter than their normal "nonstandard external loads."
: "The awkward size makes for the 'wow' portion of it," Doehring said.
: Among those who turned out at dawn Saturday morning were several
: former members of the Rotary Rocket team, many of whom are now the
: force behind another Mojave-based rocket venture, XCOR Aerospace.
: "I'm really pleased it's going to a museum and will be cared for,"
: said Aleta Jackson, one of Rotary Rocket's first employees and now
: with XCOR Aerospace. "It's kind of sad it's leaving Mojave, but
: we're pleased it's got a good home … and will be seen and
: appreciated."
: The Roton atmospheric test vehicle was a proof-of-concept vehicle
: for an envisioned space-launch system in which the cone-shaped craft
: would return from orbit and land like a helicopter.
: To test the landing and hover capabilities of the design, the ATV
: was built with rotor blades atop the cone, making it "the world's
: tallest helicopter," said Terry Robinson, program director for
: Classic Rotors.
: The blades were removed for the move, and are already at the museum.
: A nonprofit, all-volunteer effort, Classic Rotors is one of only
: four museums in the world devoted to helicopters, he said, and the
: only one with aircraft in flying condition.
: Robinson learned of the Roton through a web site and thought "we've
: got to have that Rotary Rocket!"
: He tried in vain to reach the now-defunct company, headquartered in
: Redwood City.
: The trail seemed cold until he read that XCOR Aerospace had bought
: much of Rotary Rocket's intellectual property.
: He was able to contact the company's founders through XCOR and
: secure donation of the vehicle.
: By that time, several museums had expressed interest in the vehicle,
: but none could figure out how to transport it.
: The vehicle's enormous size - more than 60 feet tall and 30 feet
: wide at the base - makes transport by road or rail impossible.
: Once set up outside the Classic Rotors hangar, the Rotary Rocket
: will be the tallest structure in Ramona, Robinson said.
: "This will put us on the map," he said.
: Eventually, the museum hopes to set up the display so that visitors
: are able to enter the cone and see the cockpit set up as if ready
: for a flight.
: "We want to give it the respect it deserves," Robinson said.
: Rotary Rocket raised eyebrows when it set up shop at the Mojave
: Airport in 1998 with the introduction of the Roton Rocket
: - conceptually a reusable launch vehicle that could carry small
: payloads into orbit, return to Earth and be prepared for another
: launch the next day.
: The company ran into difficulty raising enough capital to get the
: unconventional project off the ground and liquidated much of its
: assets in a January 2001 auction.
: The cone-shaped Roton would use rotary blades to slow its decent
: from orbit and to land, much like a helicopter.
: The Roton atmospheric test vehicle was the first step in developing
: the Roton Rocket. It was constructed to test the ship's flying
: ability in the atmosphere and was incapable of space flight.
: The ATV made three flights at Mojave Airport in 1999, where hover
: tests showed the company's concept of a helicopter-style of landing
: of a cone-shaped spacecraft would work.
Glad that the Roton ATV is going to be properly displayed in a museum,
although Romona is pretty remote to get many visitors. Hopefully this
article run during a time that NASA is feeling heat from Congress
over the Columbia shuttle crash investigation and the Orbital Space
Plane hearings will remind the public of the sad tale of Rotary
Rocket's untimely death.
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