Official Armadillo Q&A thread

Indeed. The same seems to go for the X-Prize. See Bob Cringely's post about going to the moon independently from the Google Lunar X-Prize.

Nice lot of media here

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketracingleague/

Awesome! That setup looks really slick! I wonder how much longer before they will flight-test it? I also wonder whether Armadillo has run into any roadbumps in terms of cooling, since they are going to have to run the engine at low throttle only for the RRL (IIRC).

Rob, thanks a million for the link... super!!

Question for Armadillo, looking at the pictures, the tanks seem to bee a bit bulky to fit the plane shown in this picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocketracingleague/2417296854/in/photostream/
Will the tanks be redesigned to fit the plane?

cheers,

c

The airplane has a custom fairing that covers the rear tank, which is where the piston engine used to be. The lox tank is inside where the back seats used to be.

John Carmack

John, this looks really great! How's the thrust compared to their fall 07 test flight? Looks to me like you're providing a LOT more thrust than their baseline. It's going to be a real rush to see this thing fly

Emory

Hey guys,
For all you AA-junkies: I just noticed this video on Russell Blink's flickr page. First test of the RR with the engine controlled from the cockpit. Looks fantastic! Especially the shot in slow motion from the back of the engine is amazing. Thanks for sharing, Russell!

The slow motion is excellent! nice link

Rob

Forgot to ask: the plume looks a lot brighter/less transparent now. It doesn't look like you are seeding the exhaust. Have you added more film cooling? Running richer now for some other reason?

The plume looks a lot brighter simply because it was late in the day. The daylight was lower so the camera's iris is opened wider. That same burn at mid day would look FAR more transparent, like previous runs we've posted.

Seeing the images of XCOR's rocket racer being put through its paces by Rick Searfoss, I was wondering how AA's rocket racer is going to be flight tested. Do you just provide the engine or are you also responsible for reassembling the plane and flight testing it? If so, is one of the team-members going to fly it, is the RRL providing a test pilot or are you going to employ someone from outside?

More media - http://www.flickr.com/photos/27997120@N05/

Niiiice!!!!!

Thanks (again) Rob... and John.... really think it's time to give us an update after all this eye candy

cheers,

c.

Hi Guys,

I know that some of the Armadillo engines had instability and thermal issues. How does their design relate to the pintle injector of TRW (see http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19940018570_1994018570.pdf). Is the Rocket Racing engine different from the one in Pixel/Texel?

Best,
Miklos

quote from space.com:

"It's been ready to fly for weeks," Whitelaw said, adding that he did feel some disappointment since the Armadillo team did a great job getting the engine ready. "It's the engine and its integration within airframe that the FAA has to get its arms around."

The Armadillo engine should be clear for flight demonstrations planned for later this year at the Reno National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nev., between Sept.10-14

http://www.space.com/news/080729-rocket ... debut.html