Rutan is only providing the hardware to Branson. Scaled composites is seperate from Branson’s operation. It’s like Boeing vs Delta. Rutan must have realized he neede more resources at his disposal to achieve his follow on goal, an orbital capability as opposed to the suborbital ship hes building. I hope he doesn’t get shuffled aside in the process.
I’m less than 20 miles from where the company is based and know a lot of people that work there.
They are still building the “space ships” for Virgin Galactic. Northrop is buying the company that provides these ships to Virgin Galactic. Just like how Boeing sales aircraft to many airlines.
Actually the Spaceship One program is only a small amount of the work this company does. They do a lot of other government work that is mostly classified. I have heard rumors of what some of it is, but I would never put it in writing, especially on the Internet. We don’t want the “bad guys” to know what they might be up against in the future.
Both companies said the ownership will also have no effect on Scaled's partnership with Virgin Galactic, a space travel company founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson that is selling suborbital space rides for $200,000 (€144,900) a piece. Branson has ordered a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships under development by Scaled.
I can't think of any airline that builds it s own aircraft. It would be better for someone else to handle the mass production end, and let Rutan do what he does best.