Scaled Composites Model 348 WhiteKnightTwo (WK2)

[John S]

Nice shot Matt.  Nice meeting you guys out there, I started on the grassy knoll and was thinking where the heck is everyone?
Hopefully it won't be the last time we all shoot together.

John

[Matt Ottosen]

Really shows off the eyeball design to good effect.

Nice work, Matt.

Thanks Joe.  I think it's a great perspective on the aircraft, but the sun really lit up the white of the fuselage (not too happy about that).  I'm still pretty jealous of the approach shot you got!

Nice shot Matt.  Nice meeting you guys out there, I started on the grassy knoll and was thinking where the heck is everyone?
Hopefully it won't be the last time we all shoot together.

John

Thank you!  It was nice to meet you too, and I hope to shoot with you again soon.  I'm glad we were able to be in contact and get you over to where we were.

Keep an eye on the boards, we try to organize something about once per month (we'll see how that goes during the hot Summer months).

[Dave S.]

Dave's contribution from Saturday morning's departure.  I hadn't realized the main gear did not have doors/fairings over them after retraction.  Hmm, go Burt!

[Joe Copalman]

Awesome.

[Matt Ottosen]

Dave's contribution from Saturday morning's departure.  I hadn't realized the main gear did not have doors/fairings over them after retraction.  Hmm, go Burt!

The nose gear doesn't have doors/fairings either, it's just harder to see because of the black paint.

[Joe Copalman]

I've been looking through the Mojave thread on the APSoCal site and it looks like the crew of WK2 did a fair amount of showboating at both Las Cruces and at Mojave (arrived during Mojave's airshow and did a low pass before coming back and landing).

Apparently, nobody at either airport got the "Here's one of the most interesting and unique aircraft in the history of manned flight, but don't take any pictures of it" treatment.  Good for them. 

[Joe Copalman]

White Knight 2 on the ground at Willie:

[Matt Ottosen]

I found her again, but this time I went to her!

The morning we were getting the B-17 ready to depart Mojave for Fox Field we noticed White Knight pulled out of her hangar and parked on the ramp.  We walked over to take a look and some photos, and there was WK2 sitting in the hangar.  They wouldn't let us go inside, but we were allowed to take photos from outside the hangar.

This hangar is smaller than the one she was built in, so they had to cut off her wingtips.  The wingtips now bolt on.

They are currently building five SpaceShipTwos, and plan to begin flight testing them with WhiteKnightTwo early next year.

I'll get some photos posted of the original White Knight soon.

[Jay Beckman]

Cool that you got to see WK and WK2 at Mojave.

The flight demo of WK2 at OSH was very impressive.  A couple from same:

[JWAir]

Hello everyone!

  Guess I should probably start out by introducing myself.....even though most of you probably already know me from Gateway. Anyways, now that most people have forgotten that this bird came through in June of last year, I guess now it is OK to post this shot. It was shot on the morning of June 20, 2009 at 7:10AM when this awesome bird was taxiing out. This was shot on Kodachrome 64 slide film and was scanned a few days ago. Hope at least someone enjoys this angle...

[dhmoody356]

As long as we seem to be revisiting White Knight Two, here is one from 31 July, 2009 at EAA/AirVenture, Oshkosh

[dhmoody356]

Except I forgot to include this