AMO 72201 White Knight & SS1

White Knight airplane was developed in 2002 by Scaled Composites Company as a jet-powered carrier of the SpaceShipOne (SS-1) experimental spacecraft. The SS-1 manned suborbital nonexpendable spacecraft was built one year later. Both air vehicles almost completely have been built from composite materials.

Flight starts with a jet-powered carrier take-off and it`s climbing till 15 km, where the passenger spacecraft is drop-released. SS-1 straightens itself out about 10 s and switches his rocket engine on after that. That brings the spacecraft nearly vertical with an acceleration lasting a little bit more than 1 minute. During that period its maximum speed reaches 3500 km/h. At 100 km altitude, when the fuel is burned out, the SS-1 continues free flight. After that it experiences free fall, then gliding flight and glades down to horizontal landing at the runway.