WhiteKnightTwo mothership rollout

[3v0]

A few days ago

The first WhiteKnightTwo mothership sits on a Mojave, Calif., runway with designer Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson nearby. Credit: Virgin Galactic

"This is a big airplane," said Scaled Composites founder, Burt Rutan, and Chief Technology Officer and Chairman Emeritus of the company. "It is not an inappropriate claim to say this is the largest all-composite airplane," he told SPACE.com.

I am a big fan of Ratan. This thing is incrediable.

 

[Torben]

Yeah, that thing is very cool indeed. And Rutan is indeed a genius. Apparently he understands aeronautics on an instinctual level as well as technical and scientific--he's got a true "feel" for it which helps him design things many other engineers would not even attempt.

Of course, that's just what I've read about him. I've never met the man and I'm not qualified to judge his abilities in any case. But his creations tend to work and they just look SO cool.


Torben

 

[3v0]

It use the same configuration as the Heinkel He-111Z Zwilling used to tow the huge Me-321A Gigant. The He-111Z is a pair of He-111H twin-engine bombers joined together by a common wing center section with a fifth engine. https://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Messerschmitt-Me321/gigant.php

It looks like the WhiteKnightTwo will carry passengers both fuselages.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Yes, it was on UK TV the other day, however, that's only half the project, the actual space going part isn't built yet, and it was 'displayed' under a large cover (or at least something was!).