Tianlong-3 Y1 “Static Fire”

[ORAC]

Now, about those tie down bolts…….

Photo before test and video of test……..

https://x.com/raz_liu/status/1807325130265379165?s=61

Video:

​​​​​​​https://x.com/mediara00/status/1807361161639141591?s=61

[treadigraph]

Looks rather like the down pipe from my guttering. 'cept I haven't got a bin liner stretched over the top.

[magyar_flyer]

This is beyond crazy. Very lucky escape.

[what next]

Originally Posted by magyar_flyer

This is beyond crazy. Very lucky escape.

Really! With China being such a large country one wonders why they make these tests so close to a town. But the belly-flop-manoever worked nicely ;-)

[ORAC]

https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1807622897243988344?s=61

Funny side note, after a little bit of investigation w/ others, the patent for the pad (which was originally for Tianlong-2) was only designed to support up to 600t of force. T3Y1 has a thrust of 820t, w/ 220t of propellant by the time cutoff occurred

How on earth was this supposed to work lol…..

This is an old patent but the organization has stated in the past that only the propellant system was modified, as a show of simplicity in ground infrastructure. They even tried to throw shade at LandSpace with their expensive hardware versus the "reusable" ground system between launch vehicles of Space Pioneer

I am actually laughing so hard right now what the hell is up with Chinese companies…..



​​​​​​​

[Jhieminga]

"You tightened those bolts... right?"

Looks like an expensive mistake

[Ohrly]

They probably ordered the bolts from AliExpress. David Beckham has a lot to answer for.

[atakacs]

Originally Posted by Jhieminga

"You tightened those bolts... right?"

Looks like an expensive mistake

Actaully by their own admission they exceeded the specs of the test rig by quite a margin. It was never going to fly (pun intended).

[cavuman1]

Rumo(u)r has it that the former Spirit employee who had worked on the Alaska Airlines 737-900 MAX door/plug was responsible for the installation of the tie-down bolts on the test stand....

- Ed