From there, one precise 360-degree turn at a safe 30-degree bank angle puts the plane on short final approach, 500 feet above Mojave’s runway, for an easy landing. White Knight has an identical system, as does Rutan’s earlier Proteus jet.Īs SpaceShipOne continues its slow, unpowered glide toward the desert below, the flight director system shows the necessary nose-down attitude to hit a waypoint directly above the Mojave runway at 8,600 feet. The biggest problem - moisture - is handled with desiccants that are built into the ship. As Rutan describes it, they “put a spacesuit outside the spaceship”: creating redundant systems for the windows and seals that emulate the thermal protections needed to keep the crew comfortable. Inside the ship, meanwhile, environmental systems allow the pilot to sit in a cloth flight suit. Even if the protection fails, Rutan insists, the exposed areas wouldn’t place the crew in jeopardy. Rutan’s engineers predict maximum temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, with small enough exposed areas that only about 20 percent of the ship’s external shell needs thermal protection. The slow speed and suborbital altitude keep the outside surfaces of the ship from overheating. That leaves the ship with enormous drag and a tiny load, enough to allow a quick drop into the atmosphere at an almost leisurely 155 knots. The pilot pushes forward two levers on the left side of the cockpit seat, and the twin rear stabilizers flip to vertical. Once the two aircraft reach 53,000 feet, SpaceShipOne is released from the docking system and the White Knight peels up and away to clear the airspace. SpaceShipOne’s launch procedure is remarkably similar to the X-15 program, and even to the early supersonic tests conducted over the same airspace over 50 years ago. “While it’s certainly not the best visibility of any airplane, it’s more than adequate,” says Doug Shane, the project’s operations director and one of its four test pilots. The size limits visibility at takeoff and landing, but the biggest problem with them is actually looking out for other air traffic, though ground control and collision-avoidance technology help out. If anything is a bit tricky, it’s the small windows in both aircraft, which were as large as engineers would allow for the immense pressure differences they would need to handle. Its cockpit is identical to SpaceShipOne’s, with the exception of the switches that arm and fire the space plane’s rocket. military’s T-38 training jet, run off up to 6,400 pounds of standard Jet A fuel used in commercial jets, enabling the White Knight to stay aloft for hours and carry up to an 8,000-pound payload. Its two J-85-GE-5 engines, the same ones used by the U.S. Its 82-foot wingspan lets it stay aloft at flights near 60,000 feet. The White Knight is itself an impressive aircraft, with rapid climb and bank capabilities.
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