Armadillo Aerospace News: Vehicle modifications and tests, New engine test

Because the new engines have the mounting flange on top, and hang down a lot lower, we had to raise the vehicle up a fair amount and relocate the engines. We moved the engine mount points inboard, and made an extension to mount the wire rope isolators directly under the support struts. We chopped off the old extension brackets we had previously used for the isolators (hurray for the plasma cutter…), so this was actually a small net savings in weight. If we started over, we would just have longer side panels and angle braces and avoid the extension. Read More