Winds of Change.NET: Private Manned Space Plane Unveiled

Private Manned Space Plane Unveiled

by Joe Katzman at April 19, 2003 8:30 PM

Loyal reader and occasional Guest Blogger M. Simon sends this along:

"Some of the biggest names in space, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin, space tourist Dennis Tito and military officials, were on hand for Friday�s demonstration at the Mojave Airport, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. In its first public flight, the White Knight lifted steeply off the windswept tarmac, framed in the distance by dozens of mothballed commercial airliners. The jet easily handled steep climbs and turns in the blue desert sky before soaring up to about 9,000 feet and slowly spiraling down to a soft, extremely short landing..."

White Knight is the carrier vehicle for SpaceShipOne, and both are privately built and financed. They're Rutan-designed aircraft, and you can see their beautiful lineage in the photo above. These aren't concept demonstrators or prototypes, either; the testing is preparation for a real space flight. Interesting solution to the re-entry problem, too.

For more details about these aircraft, Rutan's plans, the X-prize, and SpaceShipOne's potential uses, read the rest of the story. Scaled Composites, which assembled the aircraft, has even more photos, plus data seets and full cutaway diagrams for SpaceShipOne and The White Knight.

UPDATES:

Dec 18/03: SpaceShipOne breaks Mach One in a test flight.
Juune 8/04: The system prepares for its first space flight. Go, SpaceShipOne, Go!
June 21/04: First full flight successful!
Sept 29/04: SpaceShipOne makes its first official X-Prize flight, and succeeds. That flight had some scary moments, though.
Oct 5/04: Mission Accomplished! SpaceshipOne wins the X-Prize, and breaks the X-15's manned altitude record for an aircraft.

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