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My latest article
is an update of the fabulous flight of the White Knight and Starship 1
that made history in June when they launched space ship one into
space. This was the joint effort of Burt Rutan and many others and
funded by Paul Allen. The test pilot was Mike Melville, a 63 year old
(Isn't that great?) test pilot who piloted the SS-1 to 328,000 feet and
became an instant astronaut.
During re-entry
the SS-1 exceeded 2400 mph. Not bad for a bunch of civilians with a
mostly composite plane with a coating about 1/8th inch thick of a special
heat resistant substance. To make it even more noteworthy, it was
done at a cost of about 20 million dollars instead of the billions NASA
spent for their first launch. One of the chase planes used was an
Extra 300 tucked under the wing of the SS-1 as he approached for
landing.
The flight
profile was a flight under the wing of White Knight to about 50,000 feet
when SS-1 was released and Mike flipped two igniter switches. The
"Spacedev" rocket powered up on liquid oxygen and the ship went
straight up to 328,000 feet.
Rutan announced
that the flight for the competition to be the first to make two flights
into space with equivalent weight of two passengers and claim the 10
million dollar X-prize will be on September 29th, with the second to be
before October 13th.
Also on
September 2 the Canucks will wheel out their rocket entry for viewing, and
on September 8, the Romanians will be trying to test fly their
entry. So keep tuned as this year promises to be a great one for
backyard boys and their "Magnificent Flying
Machines"!!
Until next time
see you in the air.
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