VMS Eve
| VMS Eve | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| VMS Eve's maiden flight | |
| Role | Spaceship carrier / launcher |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | Scaled Composites |
| Designer | Robert Morgan, James Tighe[1][2] |
| First flight | 21 December 2008 |
| Primary user | Virgin Galactic |
| Number built | 2 |
| Developed from | White Knight One |
| Type | WhiteKnightTwo |
| Construction number | 001 |
| Registration | N348MS |
VMS Eve (Tail number: N348MS[3]) is a carrier mothership for Virgin Galactic and launch platform for Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo-based Virgin SpaceShips.
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VMS Eve is the first, and so far only, White Knight Two, built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. The "VMS" prefix stands for "Virgin Mothership".[4]
Public launch
The aircraft was named after Evette Branson, the mother of Richard Branson, Chairman of the Virgin Group. The jet plane has nose art of a blonde woman holding the Virgin Galactic corporate flag.[5] The image is based on how Evette Branson looked when she was younger and is called Galactic Girl.[6] The aircraft was officially launched on July 28, 2008, in Mojave, California, the United States, at the Mojave Spaceport, home of Scaled Composites. On December 12, 2008, the aircraft performed first taxi tests,[7] and a week later the maiden flight.[8] Eve will be used in the Virgin Galactic testflight program, preceding entry into commercial usage.[9]
It is the largest all composite aircraft ever constructed and has the longest single-piece composite aircraft part: a 140 ft (43 m) long wingspan.[10] Burt Rutan has dismissed fears that pressurization cycles might induce fatigue failure in the composite structure.[11] Richard Branson has also announced that it will be highly fuel efficient.[12]
Flight test program
The initial flight tests were planned to begin in early September 2008[13][14][15] but they were delayed.[16] On 12 December 2008 the initial low speed taxi test was carried out at Mojave[17] followed by a high speed taxi on 16 December.[18] By September 2009 the flight envelope was extended to 50000 feet.[19] Testing has continued, with some delays and setbacks, and as of 19 September 2014[update] the total flight time for WhiteKnightTwo is 333.96 hours.
References
- Citations
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- BBC News, Branson unveils space tourism jet, 20:42 GMT, Monday, 28 July 2008 UK
- LA Times, Richard Branson unveils his space plane, July 29, 2008, Peter Pae
- Wired, Virgin Galactic Unveils White Knight Two Launch Vehicle, 07.29.08,Dave Bullock
- New York Times, New Steps in Private Space Travel, July 29, 2008, John Schwartz
- Reuters, Branson unveils plane to launch spaceship, Mon Jul 28, 2008 Fred Prouser
- Associated Press, New space race heats up with unveiling of aircraft, Alicia Chang
- Scientific American, Forget the Dark Knight--the White Knight Two mothership has arrived, Jul 28, 2008 Adam Hadhazy
- New Scientist, Virgin Galactic rolls out SpaceShipTwo's 'mothership', 28 July 2008, Rachel Courtland
- Telegraph, Sir Richard Branson unveils Virgin's spaceship, 29 Jul 2008, James Quinn
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to N348MS (aircraft). |
- Virgin Galactic - news
- Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic Rolls Out Mothership "Eve" - Jul 28, 2008 Press Release
- Scaled Composites, WHITEKNIGHTTWO FLIGHT TEST SUMMARIES
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- ↑ US patent D612791, Tighe, James, "U.S. Design Patent 612,719 for the ornamental design for an aircraft", issued 2010-03-30
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ CNet News, Virgin Galactic's faces of Eve, July 28, 2008 1:08 PM PDT, Candace Lombardi
- ↑ ABC News, Virgin Galactic Announces New Space Aircraft, July 28, 2008, Lauren Sher
- ↑ Chicago Tribune, Branson reveals mother ship, July 29, 2008
- ↑ AVweb, WhiteKnight2 Completes Taxi Test, December 16, 2008
- ↑ The Space Fellowship, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Mothership Makes Maiden Flight, December 21, 2008
- ↑ The Register, Branson unveils Virgin Galactic mothership, Tuesday 29th July 2008 10:32 GMT, Scott Snowden
- ↑ eFluxMedia, WhiteKnightTwo Offers Space As The Ultimate Tourist Destination, 12:08, July 29, 2008, Dee Chisamera
- ↑ Rob Coppinger (29 July 2008)"Rutan: Fatigue 'is not an issue' for WhiteKnightTwo", Flightglobal
- ↑ National Geographic, Virgin Galactic Unveils WhiteKnightTwo Space Plane, July 28, 2008, Ker Than
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ [1][dead link]
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- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2014
- Commons category link is locally defined
- Individual aircraft
- Virgin Galactic
- Scaled Composites
- Space tourism
- United States airliners 2000–2009
- Twin-fuselage aircraft
- Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls
- Articles with dead external links from November 2014
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