[FPSPACE] SpaceShipOne's 3rd flight

[Chris Faranetta]

Surveys, especially surveys formulated by euphoric aerospace engineers are a lot of horse hocky if they do not contain questions derived from real field data.

CF
-----Original Message-----
From: Constantine Domashnev <cdomashnev at acm.org>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 09:46:07 
To:DwayneDay <zirconic1 at earthlink.net>
Cc:fpspace at friends-partners.org
Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] SpaceShipOne's 3rd flight

Dwayne,

I stand by my statement that $100K per ride will seem as a fair price to
a substantial pool of potential customers.

Properly conducted marketing survey of potential customers can determine
an optimal position on that demand/cost curve from the point of view of
Math Statistics.

As far as the Enterprise' costs (administrative overhead, cost of
aircraft, cost of a single flight, legal costs, insurance [if any],
etc), it might very well work out.

IMHO, it does not really matter that SS1 folks are not the best public
speakers around. This world has been built by 'doers'.
--
Constantine







On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 09:20, DwayneDay wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constantine Domashnev <cdomashnev at acm.org>
> Sent: Oct 5, 2004 8:57 AM
> 
> >The pricetag of 100K for such a ride is quite reasonable and affordable from 
> the Client's perspective.
> 
> According to this article:
> 
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5119-2004Oct4.html
> 
> Branson intends to buy five craft for $100 million and charge $200K per flight, each flight providing 3 minutes of weightlessness.
> 
> I am somewhat dubious of the market for this.  Is there really a sustainable market at that price for such a short payoff?  Certainly there is a space tourist market, but exactly where the demand/cost curve is located is the big question.  (And before anybody replies that Branson knows what he is doing, I'd point out that there have been a lot of failed commercial space projects conducted by people who "knew what they were doing.")
> 
> I see a lot of space enthusiasts being overcome by hype and exaggeration in all of this.  It's a great accomplishment, yes, but are lunar Hiltons right around the corner?  Probably not.
> 
> The article has some other interesting quotes.  For instance, when pilot Binnie landed he said "I wake every morning and just thank God that I live in a country where this is possible," I swear that he took that quote from the movie "The Right Stuff."
> 
> Branson also praised Rutan as "the most brilliant aviation engineer of the last century," which is certainly a bit of hyperbole.  Kelly Johnson, anyone?  The Wright Brothers?!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> DDAY
> 
> 
> 
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