http://www.reuters.com/article...dUSKBN0IK24220141031

Fatal Virgin crash - one dead

That is the point of my topic Renton.

But it was an accident

Oh, it was an accident all right, but when you consider the recent history of Virgin Galactic, you have to wonder whether undue pressure was placed on getting something off the ground (literally).

Private Eye recently did a piece on Virgin Galactic and Branson's continual promises that they were "nearly there". He first proposed a hotel in space in 1999, with a promise of an operational, reusable rocket by 2004. Since then, the dates kept getting pushed back. Now that's nothing new for Branson (he's been making similar unfulfilled promises for Virgin Trains for years too), but things started to heat up in January this year. Tom Bowers brought out a biography of Branson in which it was revealed that he's already taken $80 million from prospective passengers, despite still not having a license to fly, nor a viable rocket with which to do it. This provoked Virgin Galactic's CEO George Whitesides to claim that commercial flights would start later this year: a claim repeated by Branson himself in February. Actually, Branson went even further, promising flights by June. "If myself and my family are not in space by the end of the year I'd be very, very, very worried."

http://english.alarabiya.net/e...hs-says-Branson.html

Now that would be an agressive timescale at the best of times, but Branson made that claim knowing full well that test flights were halted in January after defects were found in the test plane's wings (something that wasn't publicly revealed until May). In July, he repeated his claim that Virgin Galactic would start commercial operations "soon". Now, with only two months remaining of the year, test flights finally restart - and immediately end in tragedy...

http://galacticspaceflight.com...-beam-us-up-beardie/

Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On Jupiter and Mars

No I don't think he is.

Unless someone in the know is willing to spill the beans and say negligence occurred to 'save face' or 'push the envelope' then we'll never know Branson's true intentions.

I'm not a Branson fan nor hater

 Love the thread title and I'm with Col on this

That's particularly amusing when you remember that he only expanded his record shop business in the first place in order to pay off his fine for tax evasion. He'd been smuggling records into France as part of a tax dodge, got caught, spent a night in jail and literally had to be bailed-out by his mum.

Not wanting to go back to jail again, he needed cash fast. However there was little room for expansion in the mail order business, so he opened more shops.

I suppose you could say it's a good example of how prison really can work...

He appears to have seen sense (for now).

i dont like him

he's a bit too beardy

wahey dimples

actually ive just tried lisas epilator thingy

pulled a lot of little whiskers out

and it

HURT

Oh noes Pirate what were you thinking? *gentlest hug*

shes gone to pub & im a little bit bored

& sorry cologne for hijacking thread

it was velveteens fault

He only had the one record shop at the time. I suspect I'm a little older than the rest of youse like, and I can grow a beard!

try an epilator joe

it dont half make you jump

I'm starting to think you're a self harmer...awww maann how much damage can one bloke do himself  

i remember yrs ago when my mate worked in virgin megastore..ol' beardy gave all the staff in his shops a mobile phone for xmas

that was pretty generous i s'pose

one time when she went to pub & i was bored i used her fake tan

and my hands & face were completely orange for ages

id never heard of godwins law until 2days ago!

dunno what you mean velvs

sorry

well...i never said i was clever!

Isn't that 'beardist' though?

Originally Posted by Garage Joe:

He only had the one record shop at the time. I suspect I'm a little older than the rest of youse like, and I can grow a beard!

try an epilator joe

it dont half make you jump

You've got to do it in the right direction.

At least that didn't hurt - unless you poked it in your eye!

Most of Velvety Donk's posts sail over my head...   

..but I have to say... I lubs him and I'm glad for the experience  

You dinnae get this on DS.. nor anywhere! 

Originally Posted by pirate1111:

Originally Posted by Garage Joe:

He only had the one record shop at the time. I suspect I'm a little older than the rest of youse like, and I can grow a beard!

try an epilator joe

it dont half make you jump

You've got to do it in the right direction.

i was just swirling it about-then it kind of 'caught' & went mental

it literally made my eyes water

lol

this is true

Ain't he great.. where could you buy his dark sense of humour / take on life?

Ahh he'll be off now... 

lol

nah

velveteen will be back

and twice as scottish

and ive no idea what that means

That's his charm! Makes you say things you have no understanding of.

That was one of the funniest threads ever.

 Ditto

I can make a long list of wan&ers and Branson wouldn't get a look in 

*I lubs velvet too*