Scaled Composites White Knight |
SpaceShipOne and White Knight during a captive carry test
White Knight is a jet-powered carrier aircraft used to launch
the SpaceShipOne experimental spacecraft. It was developed by Scaled
Composites as part of their Tier One program.
White Knight is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as N318SL .
White Knight was designed for two purposes relating to SpaceShipOne. Firstly, it is capable of carrying SpaceShipOne, in order
to provide it with a high-altitude air launch. Secondly, many of its systems, including the cockpit, avionics, and attitude control system, are identical to
those on SpaceShipOne. Thus White Knight serves as a training aircraft for SpaceShipOne pilots. The same test pilots who fly SpaceShipOne also fly White Knight.
White Knight first flew on August 1, 2002.
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