White Knight: March 2009 Archives

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This Virgin Galactic 6min 31s video has comments by Burt Rutan, Peter Siebold and Will Whitehorn with footage of WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin MotherShip Eve flying

To see Flightglobal.com's own video of the taxi runs and test flights that were posted months ago go here 

Above is Virgin Galactic's official 28 July 2008 WhiteKnight Two roll out video that has recently been posted to its website and below is the original Hyperbola video posted to flightglobal.com on the day last year

TEST FLYING PROGRAMME FOR VIRGIN GALACTIC SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM NOW FULLY UNDERWAY - MOTHERSHIP EVE ACHIEVES FASTEST AND LONGEST YET FLIGHT IN THE TROPOSPHERE

 

WhiteKnightTwo launch vehicle for SpaceShipTwo heralds a new era in aerospace fuel efficiency, performance and versatility

 

 

Mojave Air and Spaceport, California

27^th March 2009

 

The test flying programme for WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the space launch vehicle being developed for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2) has now completed its third successful test flight - the longest and fastest to date with a duration of over two and half hours, maximum speed of 140 knots and an altitude of over 18,000 ft. The flight also saw a further 7 tests successfully completed including in flight engine restarts, engine thrust asymmetry assessment and continued expansion of WK2's operating envelope and evaluation of WK2's handling qualities.

 

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: VMS Eve flies for first time

See more official Virgin Galactic WhiteKnight Two in-flight images here
 

Expect the first images of the third WhiteKnight Two test flight tomorrow, they should be available on the Virgin Galactic website after noon

Hyperbola has been told that the WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin MotherShip Eve's third flight was to 18,000ft, it lasted 2h 20min and 40 "tests" were conducted but we don't know what they were

credit: Flight / caption: 28 July rollout

Twelve weeks after the 21 December 2008 first flight of Scaled Composites WhiteKnight Two experimental prototype Virgin MotherShip (VMS) Eve only Hyperbola and flightglobal.com has all the video of the carrier aircraft carrying out taxi trials and test flights; none of which can be found on Virgin Galactic's own website



see more video in the extended portion of this blog post

Finishing off some of the work for the forthcoming Flight International magazine feature on Virgin Galactic the spaceline's president Will Whitehorn has told Hyperbola

• the reality TV series will follow the documentary series
• work for the documentary series "is now underway"
• there will be an announcement in April for the documentary programme(s)
• the reality tv series will air after the spaceline is operating commercially
• The Spaceship Company (TSC) is underway and has just leased an extensive facility in Mojave near Scaled to commence its activities. TSC is being headed up by Virgin Galactic's Enrico Palermo
  
  I recognise Hyperbola has been a bit Virgin Galactic heavy of late, expect normal service to resume shortly

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: VMS Eve makes its maiden flight on 21 December 2008

Click here to listen to the final fifth part of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 9min 37s interview hear Whitehorn talk about the challenge of the waiver concept's legal status, US rules, European regulation, the selection of Spaceport Sweden, a possible Scottish spaceport and more

credit Spaceport America/Virgin Galactic / caption: flights should fly first from Spaceport America in New Mexico

Click here to listen to part four of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 7min 21s interview hear Whitehorn talk about the importance of the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the rate of ticket sales, putting travel agents through centrifuges, US regulations and more

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: Virgin Galactic's pilots (L-R): Steve Johnson, chief pilot; David Mackay, chief test pilot; Alex Tai, former Virgin Galactic chief operating officer; and Alistair Hoy, chief training pilot.

click here to listen to Hyperbola's 16min 16s interview with Virgin Galactic's chief test pilot David Mackay (pr.Mack-eye)

David Mackay is Virgin Galactic's chief test pilot on a part time basis while he still works for Virgin Atlantic, which he joined in 1995. He joined the Virgin airline after spending 16 years with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and spent half of that time as a test pilot. He graduated with his test pilot wings from the French test pilot school, École du Personnel Navigant d'Essais et de Réception (EPNER) through an exchange between EPNER and the RAF's Empire Test Pilot School

This audio recording was made during a phone conversation. Noises in the background are my colleagues here in the Flight office

Expect part four of Hyperbola's podcasts with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on Monday 16 March

credit Flight / caption Virgin Galactic's experimental prototype VMS Eve takes off for a second time on 5 February

Click here to listen to part three of Hyperbola's series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn held on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 8min 32s interview hear Whitehorn talk about WhiteKnight Two's potential as a demonstrator for large scale all-carbon composite aircraft, whether the credit crunch has impacted Virgin Galactic's development timetable, what industries are at risk during the downturn, who his customers are, if they are recession proof and more

credit Virgin Galactic / caption: will we see SpaceShiptwo fly this year?

Click here to download part two of a series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview Hyperbola had with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 9min 46s interview hear Whitehorn talk about marketing the unmanned LauncherOne rocket proposed by Virgin Galactic and Surrey Satellite Technology, comparing the investment in Virgin Galactic with buying Boeing 747s, creating the business plan and more

credit Virgin Galactic  / caption: Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn  

Click here to download part one of a series of podcasts that will in total make up the 45min interview Hyperbola had with Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn on 4 March 2009 in the company's London offices. During this 8min 50s interview hear Whitehorn talk about how early customers influenced the spaceline's plans, how accurate the 2002 Futron study was, why a commercial SpaceShipOne could have been possible but not preferable, where other space tourism projects went wrong in the past and more