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On Mon, 11/3/14, Bruce Johnson <johnson@Pharmacy.Arizona.EDU> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] 'Rocket Science' gets even 'harder'!
 To: "tml@simplelists.com" <tml@simplelists.com>
 Date: Monday, November 3, 2014, 11:16 AM

 On Nov
 3, 2014, at 10:16 AM, Phil Pugliese (via tml list) <nobody@simplelists.com>
 wrote:

 > The NTSB's
 preliminary
 > investigation is pointing
 at the feathering
 > system being
 activated early and that it was
 > pilot
 error.
 >
 > http://www.voanews.com/content/ntsb-descent-system-of-crashed-virgin-spacecraft-activated-early/2505720.html
 >
 > --
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 >
 > Anyone have any info
 as to how that would cause an explosion?

 It appears that the aircraft didn't
 explode, actually since the propellant tanks and rocket
 motors were found to be intact. The airframe broke apart,
 either as a result of the feathering system being activated
 or as a precipitating even for the activation.

 Ars Technica has an article
 with some photos of the event <http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/11/ntsb-spaceshiptwo-broke-apart-when-feathering-activated-early/>

 -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the info;

You know, way back in the old days when all a/c had props, 'feathering' an engine meant that the blades of the blade were rotated so that they wouldn't 'catch' the air anymore. It was used when it was necessary to 'kill' an engine so that the prop wouldn't 'windmill' & create a drag on the rest of the a/c. My dad used to talk about it sometimes.

I've never heard of the term used for anything but 'prop-jobs'.

Anyone know what the term means wrt rocket engines?