Scaled Composites White Knight Two

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White Knight Two
White Knight Two, Oshkosh 2009
White Knight Two, Oshkosh 2009
Type: Carrier aircraft
Design country:

United StatesUnited States United States

Manufacturer:

Scaled composites

First flight:

December 21, 2008

Number of pieces:

1

Maiden flight of VMS Eve on December 21, 2008
PW308 engine
White Knight Two patent drawing

Scaled Composites White Knight Two is a type of carrier aircraft that is supposed to transport the SpaceShipTwo space aircraft to an altitude of around 15 kilometers before it is disengaged there and undertakes a suborbital space flight with rocket propulsion. White Knight Two is powered by four turbofan jet engines and can reach an altitude of 18 km with a payload.

In contrast to its predecessor Scaled Composites White Knight , White Knight Two is a double- fuselage aircraft (see also: aircraft structures ). It has about one and a half times the wingspan and can carry almost five times the load capacity of its predecessor. In addition, the arrangement of the engines was changed and their number increased from two to four . Both aircraft have two tail units each : White Knight Two has two cross tail units , each arranged on one of the two fuselages. In contrast, the predecessor had two T-tail units attached to the wings. Both models take off and land horizontally like normal aircraft and carry the space glider into the air. White Knight Two was designed in such a way that other payloads - for example smaller rockets for launching satellites - and other flight maneuvers - such as parabolic flights in preparation for space flight - are possible.

The first copy of the aircraft, called VMS Eve , was unveiled to the public in late July 2008. The first test flight, which lasted around one hour, took place on December 21, 2008 (8:16 am local time) at Mojave Air & Space Port with Peter Siebold and Clint Nichols on board. This was preceded by three rolling tests. The first almost three-hour carry flight took place on March 22, 2010, during which the aircraft reached a maximum height of 13,716 m.

The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft's first glide flight took place seven months later. The carbon fiber reinforced plastic structure was designed and built by the US company Scaled Composites as part of the Tier 1b project.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
White Knight Two White Knight
Wingspan 42.67 m 28 m
length 23.77 m ?
height 07.62 m ?
Summit height 18.3 km over 16 km
drive 4 × Pratt & Whitney PW308 turbofan engines 2 × Turbojet -Triebwerk General Electric J85 -GE-5
Load capacity 17 tons 3.6 tons
Mission duration 90 minutes 90 minutes
Transfer range with SS2   5400 km ?

Web links

Commons : White Knight Two  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
  • Rob Coppinger: WhiteKnightTwo flies! December 21, 2008, archived from the original on December 27, 2008 ; accessed on December 21, 2008 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther Glatzel: WhiteKnightTwo completed the first test flight. December 21, 2008, accessed March 26, 2020 .
  2. virgingalactic.com: VSS Enterprise's first 'captive carry' flight! Archived from the original on March 25, 2010 ; Retrieved March 27, 2010 .