Scaled Composites White Knight
White Knight | |
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White Knight with radar attached |
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Type: | Carrier aircraft |
Design country: | |
Manufacturer: | |
First flight: |
August 1, 2002 |
Number of pieces: |
1 |
Scaled Composites White Knight (Model 318) is the name of the carrier aircraft that transported the spacecraft SpaceShipOne to an altitude of around 15 kilometers before it was released there. It took off like a normal airplane and carried the space glider up into the air. The aircraft was also used as a carrier for the atmospheric tests of the experimental unmanned aerial vehicle X-37 in 2005 and 2006 .
It was designed and built by Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites as part of the Tier One project .
The name White Knight comes from a drawing by an employee of Scaled Composites showing a knight in white armor. The drawing was also used as the aircraft's emblem.
In July 2014, the aircraft was to Paine Field flown in the State of Washington and the Flying Heritage Collection of Paul Allen passed.
Technical specifications
Parameter | Data | |
---|---|---|
White Knight | White Knight Two | |
crew | 1 pilot (front seat) 2 passengers (back seat) |
? |
Wingspan | 28 m | 42.67 m |
Load capacity | 3.6 tons | 17 tons |
Engines | 2 × Turbojet General Electric J85 -GE-5 | 4 × turbofan Pratt & Whitney PW308 |
Mission duration | 90 minutes | 90 minutes |
costs | $ 20 to 30 million | ? |
Service ceiling | over 16,000 m | 18,300 m |
Mark | N318SL | N348MS |
Individual evidence
- ^ Mothership adopts a new space plane. May 27, 2005, accessed December 31, 2018 .
- ^ Dan Linehan: SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History . Zenith Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7603-3188-0 , pp. 21 (English).
- ↑ SpaceShipOne's White Knight Airplane Makes Final Flight. Accessed December 31, 2018 .
Web links
- Scaled Composites: SpaceShipOne & White Knight (English)