[iijj]

The primary advantage of airplane launch is that you can fly to into a launch window for an orbital rendezvous. Otherwise you'd have to wait for the target's orbit to be just right w/respect to the launch site, or do a long orbit matching process.

This is very useful if say you want to very quickly and quietly launch something towards another satellite.

People are making comparisons with the Spruce Goose, but the Glomar Explorer may be a better analogy.

[Retric]

The largest downside is the rocket needs to be strong in more than one direction which adds a lot of weight. Sub Mach 1 first stage will save a little net weight but significantly less than you might diets assume.

[CydeWeys]

Sure, but the strength it needs to have in the additional "hanging horizontal" orientation is only 1g -- much less than the many-g strength that all rockets need to have along their thrust axis. It adds some weight, but not enough to ruin the other benefits.

[fsloth]

For those not familiar with cold war lore - Glomar Explorer was a submarine recovery operation which used the actual Howard Hughes as a cover [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSF_Explorer

[205guy]

Looks more like the Pineering Spirit, a ship made from 2 hulls side by side:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneering_Spirit_(ship)

There are videos of this thing lifting an entire oil platform at once.

[svantana]

> This is very useful if say you want to very quickly and quietly launch something towards another satellite.

Surely you could already do that with Orbital ATK's Pegasus? 1000 lbs is plenty of explosives. It seems to me this is just a bigger version of that.

[neuronexmachina]

It would be potentially suitable for a larger payload akin to the X-37B. This would be handy if the intent isn't destruction, but rather interference or even retrieval. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

[robbiep]

The spruce Goose analogy comes from wingspan, which is directly from the article

[kevin_thibedeau]

He's hinting that this is a black program with a fake public cover story.

[coredog64]

Could I take my captured satellite to a base inside an extinct Japanese volcano?

[kodfodrasz]

That would be SPECTREcular!

[ge96]

Ha also by Howard Hughes... ah I was obsessed with this guy for a while... I realize it's a movie but The Aviator is a favorite... Katherine Hepburn/Howard Golf scene haha

edit: CIA and kursk submarine, was it the kursk doesn't sound like the right time

edit: nope Kursk is 141, K-129 is the one they wanted (Glomar Explorer)

I like the jet-rotor tip helicopter too

edit: haha yeah beast (photo of the helicopter with massive rotors spinning I think at 88rpms)

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/04/f9/9b/04f99b793...