From: zenadsl6186@zen.co.uk   
      
   Cray74@gmail.com wrote:   
      
   > 1) Commercial aircraft are operated in large numbers   
   > 2) Commercial aircraft are operated for long periods   
   > 3) Commercial aircraft are operated in a wide range of conditions   
   >   
   > ..allowing commercial aircraft to explore every possible means of   
   > causing an airplane to fall out of the sky.   
   >   
   > It's going to be a long, long time before spacecraft are numerous   
   > enough and cheap enough to spend in hundreds of hours of flight   
   > testing, followed by countless thousands of hours of annual operations   
   > experience. Simply building the spacecraft really well doesn't match   
   > the raw experience advantage of commercial airliners when it comes to   
   > making the spacecraft safe.   
      
   My system (I'll have to think of a name) does have some benefits here.   
      
   First, much of the technology is aviation technology rather than space   
   technology, which already has the wealth of experience you mention. The   
   booster and people carrier both have aircraft-type structures, wings, wheels   
   and jets, and the only "space" bits are the main engines, tanks, rcs and   
   reentry systems.   
      
   (The cargo second stage is "space-y" but doesn't need a very low failure   
   rate, as it is unmanned.)   
      
   Second, you can flight test the booster first stage lots of times (without   
   passengers) for little or no cost. More, you can do it really fast so you   
   are not tying up capital and you can even apply the lessons learned to later   
   craft in the same build series.   
      
   The booster stage is designed to launch 5 times per day, 300 days per year,   
   and can launch at 90 minute intervals. The incremental cost of a booster   
   test launch is only about $115,000 - and if you can get the sat launch   
   traffic to pay for it, at very low launch rates, you can flight test the   
   booster for free.   
      
   The people carrier second stage has a 6 hour minimum flight cycle, but the   
   incremental cost of an unpassengered test launch is still less than half a   
   million dollars, and if anyone wants downlift you have it available to sell.   
      
      
   --   
   Peter Fairbrother   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)