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Virgin Galactic shows off next-gen carrier ship |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Monday, 18 August 2008
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 In 2004, Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne reached into space in the first privately funded manned space flight. The Ansari X Prize-winning flight caught the attention of the world and of Sir Richard Branson, who contracted them to build a larger version for commercial suborbital flights with Virgin Galactic. The unique carrier/spaceplane design was to be scaled up to a larger craft capable of ferrying several passengers at a time to the edge of space. The first component of this new system, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier craft, was recently unveiled by Scaled Composites.
WhiteKnightTwo’s innovative catamaran design features two fuselages on a 42-meter-wide (140-foot) wing. Between the two hulls will eventually be SpaceShipTwo - the eight man spaceplane that the WhiteKnightTwo will carry to 14,600 meters (48,000 feet) altitude and drop. SpaceShipTwo’s powerful hybrid rocket engine will propel the small spaceplane to 105 km (65 miles) to the edge of space.
Unlike its predecessor, White Knight, the new larger carrier plane features dual fuselages (as opposed to the single top-mounted fuselage of White Knight). Like the original, WhiteKnightTwo is constructed entirely of composite materials like carbon fiber, making it the largest all-composite airplane in the world. Composite materials are just beginning to take hold in mainstream commercial and military aviation, with planes like the upcoming Boeing 787 being partially constructed from the strong and lightweight materials.
The first of several WhiteKnightTwo planes, christened Eve in honor of Branson’s mother, is powered by four turbofan jet engines mounted under the wings and is more than capable of lifting the SpaceShipTwo craft to the requisite altitudes. Based out of the Mojave Air and Space Port in New Mexico, WhiteKnightTwo has not yet taken to the skies, though the design has undergone extensive fluid dynamics computer simulations. No schedule has yet been set for test flights. Unlike the White Knight/SpaceShipOne system, the Two version was not designed by legendary aerospace engineer and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan.
The dual fuselages are unique in that their interiors are exact duplicates of what will soon be the interior of SpaceShipTwo. In addition to launching the spaceplane, WhiteKnightTwo airplanes will be used as training craft for pilots and familiarization for customers (who will also be able to watch the launch of SpaceShipTwo from the carrier plane). WhiteKnightTwo’s training modes will include the ability to perform steep dives to simulate a microgravity environment (much like NASA’s Vomit Comet training airplane), as well as throwing six to seven Gs into the mix, mimicking the forces encountered during aboard SpaceShipTwo during launch.
While $25 million (funded entirely by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen) was used to design, construct, and operate White Knight and SpaceShipOne, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic have thus far invested $100 million into the development of WhiteKightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, which is said to be nearly three quarters complete. Scaled Composites is aiming for the first space flight for SpaceShipTwo around the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010.
Apart from launching SpaceShipTwo, with minor modifications the WhiteKnightTwo will be capable of launching satellites into orbit, unmanned aircraft, ferrying large cargo items via air, and even carrying water to help fight forest fires. The plane will have a cargo capacity of 30 tons (that’s 8,000 gallons of water - the typical firefighting plane carries about 2,000 gallons). Scaled Composites expects that the WhiteKnightTwo will be more widely utilized than the somewhat narrowly focused SpaceShipTwo.
View: Virgin Galactic
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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"Risk... Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her."
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