Virgin Galactic's White Knight II to roll out in May

www.flightglobal.com ^ | 29/01/08 | Rob Coppinger

[Freeport]

Virgin Galactic expects Scaled Composites to roll out its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) carrier aircraft White Knight II (WK2) in early May for ground tests.

Construction of the four-engine, twin-fuselage prototype is 80% complete at Scaled's Mojave, California facility, said Virgin Galactic at the New York unveiling of SS2 and WK2 on 23 January.

The WK2 will have an all-carbonfibre airframe with a 42.7m (140ft) wingspan, 23.7m overall length and a tail height of 4.5m. Powered by four Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308 turbofans, the aircraft will have a range, carrying its SS2 payload, of more than 4,200km (2,270nm).

"First flight will be during the summer", and will follow a period of ground-testing, says the space tourism company's commercial director Stephen Attenborough.

Scaled's engineers had been hoping to make WK2 ready to fly at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh in July, but that is now "unlikely", says Attenborough.

Because the WK2's two fuselages will share a common cabin design with the SS2 suborbital vehicle, the carrier aircraft will be used for pilot and passenger training for the spaceship's flights.

[antiRepublicrat]

At 6 passengers per flight, they'd need to have operating expenses of less than $60,000 just to break even.

Right now it's $200,000 per passenger. They've already sold 200 seats and have tens of thousands more reservations. Prices are planned to go down, but I don't think it'll get to $10,000 until they have much larger orbital ships.

Branson will need to contend with competition from companies like Zero Gravity Corp., which offers 3-4 hour "weightless" flights for $3,500.

Not quite competition, getting weightless for 30 seconds at a time. But I'm sure true space competition will develop, and that's the good part.

[trenton1776]

For Immediate Release:

My trips now increased to 95 miles from 60. No need to ride in a potentially dangerous vehicle that could blow up at any second. My now 95 mile trip will allow you to see lots of scenery and the cost has been decreased to only $9,000. Trip length is now a full, enjoyable 3 hours.

Forget useless flying to nowhere. Now I must admit, I won’t take you away from earth’s gravity and into space. But, oh yeah, they don’t either.

[steve-b]

Nose art closeup (not posted to thread due to size).

[Samwise]

Scaled's engineers had been hoping to make WK2 ready to fly at the AirVenture show in Oshkosh in July, but that is now "unlikely", says Attenborough.

That would certainly make it worth it to go to Oshkosh.

[amillerone]

i am just looking to see if anyone knows the launch costs for White Knight/Spaceshiptwo..

[RightWhale]

http://www.galacticjourneys.com/?gclid=CIKDqtC-25QCFSQqagodJwkukQ

Worldwide Unveiling of WhiteKnightTwo, July28th...Come back to this site for exclusive content, images and details!

They have sold a bucket load of tickets!