With all the pageantry of a king's arrival, the WhiteKnightTwo — a huge flying launch pad to support passenger suborbital space travel — made its public debut here Monday.
The rollout of the colossal composite plane signals the first phase of a critical test program to establish a private spaceliner business — a venture being bankrolled by British entrepreneur and billionaire, Richard Branson and his Virgin Group.
Looking like a giant catamaran for the sky, the twin-boom, two individual fuselages are topped by a large, 140-foot (42-meter) long stretch of wing. The aircraft will straddle and carry to drop altitude (around 48,000 feet) the SpaceShipTwo — a six passenger, two pilot craft that, once released, will rocket pay-per-view passengers to some 65 miles (104 km) above the Earth.
With a giant screen featuring Virgin Galactic's logo of an eye lifting upwards, the audience was treated to the dramatic unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo positioned on the outside tarmac — complete with Branson and Rutan waving from separate windows on the carrier craft. SpaceShipTwo, still under construction, was shrouded in a large black tarp just a few feet away during the unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo. The carrier aircraft has been christened "EVE" in honor of Sir Richard's mother.
Four turbofan jet engines power the WhiteKnightTwo, an aircraft that has more capability than needed for SpaceShipTwo operations. The mega-plane has undergone extensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing, he said — that's aerodynamic speak for utilizing electronic wind tunnel evaluations versus wind tunnel testing.
Passengers riding in the WhiteKnightTwo launch aircraft will be provided a spectacular view as well — with SpaceShipTwo peeling away and blasting skyward toward space.WhiteKnightTwo will serve as training ground — albeit in the air — for future space travelers. The mega-plane can provide stints of microgravity for next-in-line SpaceShipTwo flyers, with the aircraft also able to give clientele six to seven Gs to mimic the forces encountered during a suborbital space jaunt.
In addition to supporting suborbital space travel, the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane can satisfy a range of market needs from satellite launchings to deploying unmanned aerial vehicles, or toting large quantities of water to help squelch raging fires, as well as hauling hefty amounts of cargo from point to point.
Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Air & Space Port, said there's a significance that might be missed given today's rollout of WhiteKnightTwo.
"It's all about results," Witt told SPACE.com. "That's why people come to Mojave. The WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo...they are one more example of a result that will yield breakthroughs in aerospace. Here at the Mojave Air and Space Port, we're all about results."
Witt said the Air & Space Port is ready to support WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo test program. "I am looking forward for Scaled Composites to get back into the rocket testing business...and on we go!"
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