DaVinci: 40,000ft, 280,000 more to go

Personally, as a consumer, I do not trust that GoldenPalace.com Space Project has been tested thoroughly enough to be safe enough to compete for the X Prize, much more become a viable vehicle for private space exploration. SpaceShipOne has always caught my attention as a project with serious financial backing and a relaxed, safe testing schedule building up to the test last June that showed the world they can achieve what they set out to do. SpaceShipOne will win the X Prize or no one will.

As a "Consumer." its really none of your business how safe the Wf is, unless you happen to be living under the flightpath. In case you haven't noticed, they aren't selling tickets




No one is planning on exploring suborbital space. That part of "space" is pretty much explored, I think. Why do people get space travel and exploration mixed up?



It's easy to say that, being that there the only ones now with a scheduled attempt date. I wish them well. They weren't the onle ones doing a lot of testing. Armadillo, ARCA, STC, De Leon, HARC, Interorbital, American Astronautics, Starchaser, Thunderbird, have all been testing a great deal, but issues came up, whether it was funding, catastrophic loss of test vehichle, regulatory problems, or a lack of fuel. Some groups are more open then others. I think DaVinci happens to be the most secretive of them all, to the point of being misleading.

It helps to have $20,000,000 to win $10,000,000 prize, but I dont think it's the last word in spacecraft design. I'd much rather be in one, personally, that didn't require a carrier aircraft.

From what I've read in this thread, the photographic touch-up jobs (and false claims of credit!), the strong likelyhood that the only thing people have actually seen so far are empty shells (read: oddly shaped billboard marketing tools) ... backing from an internet casino group (!?). Some sort of balloon test done too late with too little. Feeney is a lot of talk! I mean he talks all the time, to everyone! What sort of people do we know who talk talk talk with endless promises of sure-fire, snake-oil, cure-all, can't-miss, lets line up these suckers and watch them drop into the hat. Feeny's a salesman, out to sell us the biggest bridge of all, except it's not his to sell!

I feel sorry for those of us here on this forum who supported them, who looked positively upon them, who in the spirit of observing an honest to goodness competition defended them against those who merely had bad feelings against DV and no evidence. Who then had to glumly watch as DV pulled the plug after (apparently) milking the attention they got for all it was worth. Hell, I had my hopes for DV, but no longer.

Well, the evidence has piled up and it stinks. Is da Vinci really a giant smelly heap of sh ... scam? Is da Vinci another blue ridge of ridicule?

If you think otherwise, educate us.

Who the hell was the "anonymous highly placed source" who said "two-week delay"? Anonymous?! Sounds like someone who wants to lie in your face while hiding his own.

DKH

(hey this angry ranting business is really cathartic, I feel much better now)

I think you're still giving them too much credit. I don't believe the balloon test. It's fishy too. As I said on page one of this thread:

"The balloon test was a great opportunity to show they were doing something. No proprietary hardware was being used, so they could have taken dozens of photos -- preferably with Davinci team members and the GP.COM logo prominently displayed. Instead there was one photo released of an unmarked balloon and an unidentifiable person in an unidentifiable background. It was also held in Colorado. Why there? They're based in Toronto -- on the order of 1500 miles away. Are there no open fields in Canada they could have used? Is this another non-event like the 'engine tests' that really has no relation to Davinci whatsoever?"

GP.com paid for the materials for that test. They are **only** in this for the advertising. Think about it. Do you think there is any chance whatsoever that a test of that nature wouldn't have had GP.com logos scattered all over the place? Even if they didn't want to put it on the balloon itself (unlikely), they certainly would have wanted the dude in the background to be wearing a shirt with GP's logo. There should have been a banner in the background, something.

I tried searching the internet to find someplace that photo could have been pulled from. Unfortunately, the photo doesn't give me any clues on where to start.