While I believe they have some stuff made with real tooling, this in
particular is a steel boilerplate version made by a local steel fab shop.
It's destined for ground handling tests and practice:
https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1457793865100902402?s=20
On Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 10:15 AM Henry Vanderbilt <
hvanderbilt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I haven't been following New Glenn closely - I've had distractions - but
it seems obvious to me that IF this "dummy version" was built using some of
the same manufacturing processes and tooling as the flight vehicle - I'd
guess so from the photo but don't know - it's a very useful workup for the
production team, a chance to practice and get up to speed on building the
main structures where minor mistakes are not critical and easily corrected.
And if as seems very likely it has been built to the same dimensions and
specs as the flight first stage (and presumably had mass added to
accurately simulate the missing bits, engines, tanks etc) then it's also a
very useful workout/debugger tool for the (necessarily substantial) ground
handling arrangements for the flight boosters, again with much less worry
about making and correcting minor mistakes.
IOW, they only have to learn to avoid ONE flight-booster destroying error
with this test piece for it to more than pay for itself. Not so?
Henry
On 11/10/2021 4:45 AM, roxanna Mason wrote:
It's a moral booster not rocket,
Otherwise a waste of money,
Ken
On Mon, Nov 8, 2021 at 6:53 PM Anthony Cesaroni <anthony@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
https://www.geekwire.com/2021/blue-origin-practices-dummy-version-new-glenn-orbital-rocket-florida/
Anthony J. Cesaroni
President/CEO
Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace
http://www.cesaronitech.com/
(941) 360-3100 x1004 Sarasota
(905) 887-2370 x222 Toronto