This world exclusive first image of Virgin Galactic's White Knight II (WK2) with its wing attached to its fuselages shows the port side forward fuselage, WK2 has two such booms
The port fuselage does not have the windows present on the starboard fuselage, which can be seen in the construction images in the extended portion of this blog post
More Virgin Galactic images can be found here at airspace.aero
Click on the image to see a larger version in the same browser window
Click on the image to see the larger version in the same browser window
credit: Virgin Galactic
In the image above the port boom is in the foreground and on the left hand side of the photo is the wing stretching out to the background
The starboard boom with the common forward bulkhead that SpaceShipTwo will use is where the two pilots and in-training tourists will be - obviously - aboard WK2. What makes the spy picture look different to the official image above is the work-in-progress addition of what I think is the lower half of the nosecone used by WK2 and SS2
The nosecone can be seen in the SS2 construction image below as Scaled engineers assemble it from its two halves and use tape to prove the assembly fit. Note the nose cap sitting to one side
Click on the image to see the larger version in the same browser window
credit: Virgin Galactic
This image below (which is already at full size so don't bother clicking on it) has had the area seen in the spy picture circled in red, by my own fair hand using the Paint software
credit: Flight / Virgin Galactic
The above image is a modified version of a Virgin Galactic concept image released in January this year. The windows in the port fuselage were part of the original Virgin Galactic concept image released and not changes made by Flight
credit: Virgin Galactic
In the image above the port boom is in the foreground and on the left hand side of the photo is the wing stretching out to the background
The starboard boom with the common forward bulkhead that SpaceShipTwo will use is where the two pilots and in-training tourists will be - obviously - aboard WK2. What makes the spy picture look different to the official image above is the work-in-progress addition of what I think is the lower half of the nosecone used by WK2 and SS2
The nosecone can be seen in the SS2 construction image below as Scaled engineers assemble it from its two halves and use tape to prove the assembly fit. Note the nose cap sitting to one side
Click on the image to see the larger version in the same browser window
credit: Virgin Galactic
This image below (which is already at full size so don't bother clicking on it) has had the area seen in the spy picture circled in red, by my own fair hand using the Paint software
credit: Flight / Virgin Galactic
The above image is a modified version of a Virgin Galactic concept image released in January this year. The windows in the port fuselage were part of the original Virgin Galactic concept image released and not changes made by Flight
on July 22, 2008 4:25 AM | Reply
Scaled Composites is doing a fantastic job. I can't wait to see white knight two and space ship two fly.
Please put more updates on line, so we can follow your progress.