Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier gets unveiled
By Donald Melanson 
posted July 28th 2008 12:10PM
posted July 28th 2008 12:10PM
It looks like the Mojave Desert is once again the center of the private space industry, with Richard Branson and crew on hand to unveil Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo spaceship carrier as promised. This craft (only the first of more that are promised) has been named EVE (after Branson's mother) and, with a 140-foot wingspan, it's apparently now officially the largest all carbon-composite aircraft ever made. Eventually, it'll be used to help carry the yet-to-be-completed SpaceShipTwo craft in orbit although, as Burt Rutan himself tells Space.com, that's still a little ways off, with him saying that while could be ready to go after just 40 tests flights, they'll likely do a few more than that for good measure. Head on past the break for a few more pics.
Read - Space.com, "Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership "
Read - Wired Science, "First Look at Virgin Galactic's New Mothership, WhiteKnightTwo"
Read - Space.com, "Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Liner Mothership "
Read - Wired Science, "First Look at Virgin Galactic's New Mothership, WhiteKnightTwo"
I hope both halves can fly independantly, as there looks to be a very high stress point in the center of the connecting wing!
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well if you go to the website and you look very close at the picture of the cockpit you will notice those arent windows. They are painted to look like windows. I believe the cock pit is on the right side just like the side the brits drive on. I wonder if Richard Branson had anything to do with that.
This looks like a disaster waiting to happen, the stress on the single wing will eventually give way just watch
"largest all carbon-composite aircraft ever"
On that point, I say big deal. Boeing's new 787 may be 50% C-fiber, 15% Al, and the rest Ti... but I still find its design more impressive.
Yes, EVE will ferry a vehicle on its first leg of a sub-orbital flight -- which is impressive. But design-wise, I say "meh."
Does this plane actually split into two when the 2 pilots can't agree on direction? LOL.
This is actually a great engineering marvel. What you are missing is that there is actually one crew of three whiternauts and there is a breakroom and bathroom in the right fuselage and cockpit with flight controlls in the left fuselage. The crew can actually move between the two fuselages. The photos are very misleading.
SpaceShipOne looked sooo much better than this ship! This one actually looks like a plane!