SpaceShipOne Breaks the Sound Barrier

Scaled Composite Press Release ^ | December 17th, 2003

[Frank_Discussion]

SpaceShipOne Breaks the Sound Barrier

Today, a significant milestone was achieved by Scaled Composites: The first manned supersonic flight by an aircraft developed by a small company's private, non-government effort.

In 1947, fifty-six years ago, history's first supersonic flight was flown by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket under a U.S. Government research program. Since then, many supersonic aircraft have been developed for research, military and, in the case of the recently retired Concorde, commercial applications. All these efforts were developed by large aerospace prime companies, using extensive government resources.

Our flight this morning by SpaceShipOne demonstrated that supersonic flight is now the domain of a small company doing privately-funded research, without government help. The flight also represents an important milestone in our efforts to demonstrate that truly low-cost space access is feasible.

Our White Knight turbojet launch aircraft, flown by Test Pilot Peter Siebold, carried research rocket plane SpaceShipOne to 48,000 feet altitude, near the desert town of California City. At 8:15 a.m. PDT, Cory Bird, the White Knight Flight Engineer, pulled a handle to release SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne Test Pilot, Brian Binnie then flew the ship to a stable, 0.55 mach gliding flight condition, started a pull-up, and fired its hybrid rocket motor. Nine seconds later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier and continued its steep powered ascent. The climb was very aggressive, accelerating forward at more than 3-g while pulling upward at more than 2.5-g. At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph). Brian then continued the maneuver to a vertical climb, achieving zero speed at an altitude of 68,000 feet. He then configured the ship in its high-drag "feathered" shape to simulate the condition it will experience when it enters the atmosphere after a space flight. At apogee, SpaceShipOne was in near-weightless conditions, emulating the characteristics it will later encounter during the planned space flights in which it will be at zero-g for more than three minutes. After descending in feathered flight for about a minute, Brian reconfigured the ship to its conventional glider shape and flew a 12-minute glide to landing at Scaled's home airport of Mojave. The landing was not without incident as the left landing gear retracted at touchdown causing the ship to veer to the left and leave the runway with its left wing down. Damage from the landing incident was minor and will easily be repaired. There were no injuries.

The milestone of private supersonic flight was not an easy task. It involved the development of a new propulsion system, the first rocket motor developed for manned space flights in several decades. The new hybrid motor was developed in-house at Scaled with first firings in November 2002. The motor uses an ablative nozzle supplied by AAE and operating components supplied by SpaceDev. FunTech teamed with Scaled to develop a new Inertial Navigation flight director. The first flight of the White Knight launch aircraft was in August 2002 and SpaceShipOne began its glide tests in August 2003.

Scaled does not pre-announce the specific flight test plans for its manned space program, however completed accomplishments are updated as they happen at our website: http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/index.htm. The website also provides downloadable photos and technical descriptions of the rocket motor system and motor test hardware.

Scaled Composites, LLC, is an aerospace research company located on the Mojave Airport: 1624 Flight Line, Mojave California 93501 Voice (661) 824-4541 Fax (661) 824-4174 Email: info@scaled.com

[LTCJ]

It sure is weird looking!

Having worked with the Rutans, the only thing weirder that the looks of some of the designs is sitting in a meeting with < one who shall remain nameless >. As a result, I began to believe sometimes thinking outside the box may have come from having escaped from one!

Don't get me wrong - nice, smart - but ...

[Iris7]

Mr. Paul G. Allen shows what can be done by private money when it is used wisely. Mr. Allen has his wastrel side, but his heart is with us. Thank God he is one of us.

Burt's operation will force NASA people to search their souls,and ask themselves why they took the wrong road after the moon landings. This project will make all of the space people see the new possibilities with a wild surmise. This is a standing on a peak in Darien moment. The human world has changed. The good NASA boys, and they are legion, won't stand for any more bureaucrap and dishonor. We can be off and running.

[Iris7]

Good to see a serious hardware man on the thread. God Speed your projects.

[skinkinthegrass]

Beautiful. :))

[King Prout]

Is it too late to jump on the bandwagon?
How much do shares cost, and where can they be had?

[skinkinthegrass]

Slick...

the GOOD kind of slick, not BUBBA type. :))

[bonesmccoy]

SRM's are considered REUSED because the SEGMENTS are REUSED.

The whole darn system gets the once over after each flight... by your definition NONE of the STS is reused.

ET is clearly manufactured for each flight.

SRMs are NOT.

[Conservomax]

Where can you buy shares in this 'enterprise'?

Aren't there a number of competing projects? I read about this in Wired a few months back.

[bonesmccoy]

yes...looks like they innovated their engine... been wondering about their TPS solution.

Seen any info on their TPS?

[Flightdeck]

I don't think they will be going fast enough to generate the plasma sheath. And the big tail doohickey might give them a low terminal velocity when there's enough atmosphere.

[IYAS9YAS]

Their ticker symbol is SPDV. Other than that, you'd have to go through your broker.

[Vinnie_Vidi_Vici]

I thought the spaceship one sim was available for the X-Plane flight simulator software

[RightWhale]

Forget the space shuttle, private industry will take over.

Rutan/Allen are $1.5 billion from achieving earth orbit.

[bonesmccoy]

The flight profile is similar to the Mercury Redstone flights of MR-3 and MR-4 with Sheppard and Grissom and the X-15 flight profiles of Crossfield and others.

Hope to hear about the next step... after they fix that gear problem.

[Major_Risktaker]

So if all goes well, when can we expect such a structure to be built? Arthur C. Clarke was once asked this question and came up with the answer: "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing". They just stopped.

Well HamiltonJay, I'm still laughing but it is an interesting idea.

So now that we have a cable dangling from a distant point in space, we need something to attach it to.

How about attaching the cable to a power plant at the other end could by a 100 square mile solar cell array so we could power the earth with direct solar power when the cable isn't in use.

Space elevator

Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne will be in space years before the space elevator tower location is ever built. I'll stick with Burt for now.

Thanks for the post Frank.

[HamiltonJay]

Well actually it will be on the VERGE of space.... sub orbital flight the fringe of the thermosphere and placing things into geosynchronous orbit are 2 completely different things....

Shuttling 3 people the the verge of space and back, while neat is a far far cry from launching satellites and other cargo.

you can bet on SS1 for your thrill seekers, but I won't beholding my breath for it to be challenging payloads to space anytime soon.

[RightWhale]

Just the motor. SPDV

Boeing is also an aerospace company and there are many others with interest in the space industry. It has been lean times lately, but sooner or later someone will go big. Keep the faith.

[RoughDobermann]

Seen any info on their TPS?

Just make sure you use the new cover sheet on that TPS report from now on, um kay?

[anymouse]

AP: Rocket Plane Breaks Sound Barrier

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen told The Associated Press Wednesday that he is backing the project. He put the size of his investment in the "tens of millions" of dollars.

"It's just an amazing thing," Allen said. "It shows what private technology can do when you've got really creative people trying to push the boundaries of what's possible."

[anymouse]

Space ping