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PRESS RELEASE
For Details, Contact: Kaye LeFebvre
Phone: 661-824-4541
Fax: 661-824-4174
Email: info@scaled.com
Website: http://www.scaled.com
Press Release
17 December 2003
For Immediate Release
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 (800 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
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