The Buran

Interesting stuff. I had no idea about this program or what happened to it. On another note, do you think this airplane has enough wheels? :rofl:

Buran-21-41.jpg
 
Wow, that roof collapse was tragic. Hope nobody was inside at the time!

Am I the only one that thinks their tile job makes it look like they have a Lego Shuttle?
 
They got smart about 20 years before we did and realized the thing was just too expensive to run. And when they did that, they still had the technology to use the older system, unlike us. Plus a vast majority of the Buran system, the Energia, is still used in other forms.
 
Don' worry, we'll be renting seats on whatever Russian spaceship goes up, because we just don't have the will nor the scratch anymore. :rolleyes2:
 
In those photos where Buran attached to the top of Antonov 225 my dad was member of the flight crew
 
sdflyer said:
In those photos where Buran attached to the top of Antonov 225 my dad was member of the flight crew
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Now, there's something you don't read everyday...

...we'd love to hear more, if you're willing to share! :thumbsup:
 
Everskyward said:
Cool! What was his job?
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He was a test pilot in Antonov company at the time. He was among the first crew who did the maiden flight on Antonov 124, and later was assigned to An-225 Buran program. He served as a test pilot (navigator and first officer) before 20 years before retiring and moving to US .

Now he lives in San Diego and runs his own aircargo charter company. Here is his picture from his home page

On the right my dad, on the left Galunenko - test pilot and captain of An-225
http://www.aircargocharter.com/contact.html

He also belongs to nonprofit group of Old Bold Pilots
http://oldboldpilots.org/
Here is the info about him (under Poddoubnyi Alexander)
http://oldboldpilots.org/memberslist.htm
 
The 225 is one of the coolest, most audacious airplanes ever built - what a badge of honor to have all that on the resume!

Thanks for sharing... maybe you can persuade your Dad to visit here some time?
 
SCCutler said:
The 225 is one of the coolest, most audacious airplanes ever built - what a badge of honor to have all that on the resume!

Thanks for sharing... maybe you can persuade your Dad to visit here some time?
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He travels once in a while around US to some aviation conventions. However, if you ever visit San Diego don't hesitate to join Old Bold Pilots. They meet every Wednesday at 7:00am at Oceanside Denny's . You and anyone one else are welcome to come and join them for a breakfast. My dad goes there almost every meeting ( I do as well)

By the way there are a lot of great pilots up there including some who served in Royal Airforce during WWII and even one who flew in Luftwaffe (JG-5)!
 
sdflyer said:
He was a test pilot in Antonov company at the time. He was among the first crew who did the maiden flight on Antonov 124, and later was assigned to An-225 Buran program. He served as a test pilot (navigator and first officer) before 20 years before retiring and moving to US .

Now he lives in San Diego and runs his own aircargo charter company. Here is his picture from his home page http://oldboldpilots.org/memberslist.htm
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Interesting story! I had no idea you could charter these kinds of aircraft.
 
Ahhh haa, so your dad is where the business model for "2 MEN AND A TRUCK" started.... cool....

denny-o
 
And as a separate post:
It just drives me WILD when they talk about needing to spend billions on new hardware when we have a Saturn V standing up at Huntsville... The bird is man rated... The blueprints and the companies still exist and can start an assembly line with minimal delay - they should be able to deliver serial #2011-01 within 8 months. That beast will lift anything they want to put into orbit... Do it reliably... And do it for pennies on the dollar...
As far as the return system simply stack a larger version of the Apollo capsule on top of the load, as the launch/escape/return vehicle for the crew... This capsule system is proven 100% reliable as a return vehicle...

Beg the rooskies for transportation - arrrrrgh, my blood pressure...

denny-o
 
Dr. O said:
And as a separate post:
It just drives me WILD when they talk about needing to spend billions on new hardware when we have a Saturn V standing up at Huntsville... The bird is man rated... The blueprints and the companies still exist and can start an assembly line with minimal delay - they should be able to deliver serial #2011-01 within 8 months. That beast will lift anything they want to put into orbit... Do it reliably... And do it for pennies on the dollar...
As far as the return system simply stack a larger version of the Apollo capsule on top of the load, as the launch/escape/return vehicle for the crew... This capsule system is proven 100% reliable as a return vehicle...

Beg the rooskies for transportation - arrrrrgh, my blood pressure...

denny-o
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You're kidding right? Most of the people who built the thing are old and not in a position to work on a "new" Saturn V. Those who understand how the systems integrated and who designed the thing are mostly dead. Why spend a ton of money to rebuild the tooling to build a Saturn V, when we can take the time to spend a bit more money, and get something that's new and a more suitable system. Honestly, I don't think that we could get the moon in the next 8 years if we had all the money in the world. And what reason to we really have to go to the moon? I'll buy going to Mars/asteroids, but what's on the moon we haven't seen with people/robotics?

Quite frankly, we don't need a Saturn V sized vehicle that's man rated. We need a big cargo booster, to put a lander and TLI/TMI (Lunar or Martian insertion) stage in orbit. Then launch the people in the capsule on a smaller, man rated booster, like a Falcon 9 or maybe man-rated Delta IV/Atlas V.

Like it or not, we've used 4 launch systems to put people in orbit. The Soviets/Russians have used one, and started development on 2 more, that were canceled. Granted, they may not have done so by choice, but the R7 has saved them a ton of money over the course of the program. Heck, Sputnik was launched on an R7. From a reliability standpoint, I'd much rather ride on a Soyuz R7 derivative than a Space Shuttle, because they've had so many years to work out bugs on the thing. The entire STS was getting to the point where we could start to improve things, after collecting data over the course of 100 flights. Turns out it would be better to just build something better.
 
KSCessnaDriver said:
You're kidding right? Most of the people who built the thing are old and not in a position to work on a "new" Saturn V. Those who understand how the systems integrated and who designed the thing are mostly dead. .
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Didn't you see Space Cowboys? They could be up to speed in a few weeks.:wink2:
 
Dave Theisen said:
Didn't you see Space Cowboys? They could be up to speed in a few weeks.:wink2:
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Given enough money, anything is possible. If you've got enough money, you could launch a 747 to the moon. Just make sure you basically have all the money in the world.
 
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