So how serious is Branson? Let's look at Rutan's pedigree.
In 1974 after working in the military on various design projects he founds his own company. He does very little until 1977. At this point he watches star wars and he stops making regular composite aircraft.
Rutan:"You can put the wings at the back??? mmmm idea brewing ..."
In 1979 the prototype design for the varieze and long-ez aircraft were flown and designs sold in the mid 80's to civilian home builders.
Now, no one is saying Burt is stupid. Burt's brother Dick Rutan flew the long ez and smashed many world speed and endurance records. As I mentioned before I have had he privilege of flying a long ez. It was unlike any other aircraft I have ever flown. All his aircraft are of similar layout as you will see. Let me out line the pros and cons.
Pro's. Rutan's canard planes are fast - ridiculously fast. Very low drag. Best glide ratio of any aircraft I have ever flown by a country mile. Very fuel efficient. Corner like a house fly. So good are the aerodynamics that XCOR Aerospace modified a Long-EZ and replaced the engine with twin liquid fueled rocket engines to form a flight test vehicle called the EZ-rocket, which was used as a proof-of-concept demonstrator.
Con's. They cannot be negatively G-loaded. They fall to bits. Very high stall speeds. This is to make sure the canard stalls before the main wing. Stall the main wing on one of these and you are dead. There is no recovery. You have no control. Consequently high landing speeds.
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Above is a varieze. Above is another aircraft he designed called the Quickie.
His finest homebuilt the Berkut 360. I met the guy who owns that 360. Anyway ...
Now these aircraft have a place in history. However these aircraft also killed a lot of people. You need to be a damn good pilot to fly one. Not for novices. Ever heard of John Denver? Long Ez finished him off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Denverhttp://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=74430 Another one.
http://www.thekathrynreport.com/2009/12/n499cm-rutan-long-ez-built-by-michael-j.html Another
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001206X02295&key=1 One of his other planes the cozy
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001207X02891&key=1 Another cozy death
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020213X00211&key=1 And another
Only 700 long ez were ever built. 71 have had accidents. 28 were fatalities.
But Rutan didn't leave it there. Still dreaming of starwars he convinced Beechcraft that he could design them an awesome business jet.
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Rutan: "Mmmmm what shall i call it? How about ... The Beechcraft Starship? Yeah like that."
Development cost $300 million. Unit cost $3.9 million. Units sold? 13. Ouch. Beechcraft got hurt. Still Burt shrugged his shoulders and looked forward to his next project. There must be other rich people out there who would pay him silly money to design a back-to-front aircraft.
And Burt found a rich guy. This rich guy was going to fund an aircraft that would be the first to fly round the world without stopping for fuel in one go.
The Rutan Voyager. Can you guess which rich guy from the picture above?
Indeed the aircraft accomplished its mission so again Burt moved on.
Since he first sat on his couch and watched a film about a galaxy far, far away, he knew what he wanted to do. He has always been attempting technical exercises on this long road.
Burt Rutan has no interest in money. None. He built the kits planes to break world records. He built the starcruiser to prove his designs could work on commercial vehicles. He built the voyager to break endurance records. And now he is building this.
Just kidding. This weird thing is one of his though from 1990.
He built this to prove it could be done.
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It could, Halo flight achieved. High Altitude Long Operperation (Extension of Voyager with piggy backing vehicle)
Now he is building this.
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The thing is, Rutan doesn't give a monkey's whether this succeeds financially or not. He isn't picking up the tab. He is only interested in can it be done. Not 'will anyone use it?'.
This will flop, Branson will get burned, I will laugh, and you guys still won't get your space flight. You read it here first.
Of course Branson probably suspects what I suspect. But exactly like Howard Hughes 40 years before, it gets headlines. Captures the imagination, makes you think Virgin is the best company to fly with.
In summation, BRanson is not going to be offering trips to hundreds of thousands of people as the OP suggested. The numbers of those who have been high enough to see earth's shape will be small enough for the conspiracy to control.