Scaled Composites White Knight Two

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section contains information about future products.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically once the product is released or more information becomes available.

Scaled Composites' White Knight Two or Eve is the first stage of Tier 1b, a two-stage to suborbital-space manned launch system. It is coupled with SpaceShipTwo to form the full launch package. WK2 is based on the successful White Knight mothership to SpaceShipOne, which itself is based on Proteus. Together WK2 and SS2 form the basis for Virgin Galactic's fleet of suborbital spaceplanes.

It is believed that WK2 will be roughly three times larger than White Knight, in order to support the larger SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, which is planned to hold 7 passengers and 2 crew. The WK2 will be similar in size to a Boeing 757 airliner, and will be by far the largest aircraft constructed by Scaled Composites.

As with the original White Knight, WK2 will carry SpaceShipTwo attached underneath, and will likely share a common cockpit design with SpaceShipTwo.

WK2 is projected to be an aerobatic airplane, which will provide preview flights offering several seconds of weightlessness, before the actual suborbital event. It will have a service ceiling of atleast 50,000 ft or 15km, offering a dark blue sky to passengers. This would allow tourists to practice before the real flight.

It has been rumored that White Knight Two will be the same aircraft as T/Space's (Transformational Space Corporation) VLA, or Very Large Aircraft. The VLA is also designed by Rutan's Scaled Composites, and will be used by T/Space to conduct in-air drop launches of orbital rockets. However, there is no confirmation from Virgin Galactic or Scaled Composites about the truth to this rumor.