Scaled Composites White Knight Two
Image source: commons.wikimedia.org
Scaled Composites created the White Knight Two carrier airplane in 2007. The wing connecting the two plane bodies is not just for style. The wing carries the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft. Virgin Galactic, a Sir Richard Branson company, produced the ambitious SpaceShipTwo project for space tourism.
When the White Knight Two rises to the right altitude and releases the SpaceShipTwo. The SpaceShipTwo’s rocket engines then launch it into space. At the time of this writing, the SpaceShipTwo hasn’t succeeded in reaching space yet. SpaceShipTwo’s older sibling, the VSS Enterprise, crashed during a 2014 test flight.
The White Knight Two airplane carrier is also called VMS Eve, the name of Sir Richard Branson’s mother. The aircraft possesses a wing span of 43 metres. The White Knight Two carries a payload of 37,000 lb.
