4 ms·

I doubt there's enough heavy commercial cargo in the world that would support a fleet of these aircraft. While the current AN-225 is busy, it doesn't appear to

by chiph 10y ago

I doubt there's enough heavy commercial cargo in the world that would support a fleet of these aircraft. While the current AN-225 is busy, it doesn't appear to be busy enough to financially justify restarting construction on the second airframe. I expect this is desired for a few reasons - heavy military airlift, to match what the US has had since Vietnam with the C-5 Galaxy. Access to licensed construction of the D-18 engine (as mentioned by ovi256). And ego.

avmich 10y ago
There is a known big problem of transporting big rocket stages from the place where they are manufactured to places where they are launched. Saturn-5, one of the biggest rockets so far in the world, was manufactured near a river and transported by a big ship. This sidestepped the problem of roads. Energiya, the Soviet heavy rocket which launched Buran, had its huge second stage flown by a plane to Baykonur. In 1960-s, USSR was looking for a good solution to this problem. They considered building a huge canal to use ships; they were thinking about using an aircraft; they played with an idea of building an exceptional - biggest in the world, if I'm not mistaken - automobile to carry it over desert. Eventually they decided to build rocket near the launch complex - that's the reason N-1 has the unusual shape. Today, SpaceX keeps lengthening Falcon-9 modules - but it can't make them wider, because existing roads won't allow it. Long stages have their share of problems - they could be less efficient by mass, they could have unwanted dynamic characteristics - imagine a long thin-walled container pushed from behind through the atmosphere, it way vibrate... In short, just the rocket industry of the world alone - that's currently about under hundred launches per year - could provide the market for big planes. At least this is a possible option.
- chiph 10y ago
  Blue Origin says their next body (New Glenn) will be 23' (7 meters) in diameter. They're building a new facility near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for it.

by chiph 10y ago

avmich 10y ago

There is a known big problem of transporting big rocket stages from the place where they are manufactured to places where they are launched. Saturn-5, one of the biggest rockets so far in the world, was manufactured near a river and transported by a big ship. This sidestepped the problem of roads. Energiya, the Soviet heavy rocket which launched Buran, had its huge second stage flown by a plane to Baykonur. In 1960-s, USSR was looking for a good solution to this problem. They considered building a huge canal to use ships; they were thinking about using an aircraft; they played with an idea of building an exceptional - biggest in the world, if I'm not mistaken - automobile to carry it over desert. Eventually they decided to build rocket near the launch complex - that's the reason N-1 has the unusual shape. Today, SpaceX keeps lengthening Falcon-9 modules - but it can't make them wider, because existing roads won't allow it. Long stages have their share of problems - they could be less efficient by mass, they could have unwanted dynamic characteristics - imagine a long thin-walled container pushed from behind through the atmosphere, it way vibrate... In short, just the rocket industry of the world alone - that's currently about under hundred launches per year - could provide the market for big planes. At least this is a possible option.

chiph 10y ago
Blue Origin says their next body (New Glenn) will be 23' (7 meters) in diameter. They're building a new facility near Cape Canaveral Air Force Station for it.