PYTHOM - Space Expeditions

	Pythom Home
	Latest News
	Expedition List
	The Dream
	About

A perfect flight

Related Links

Scaled Composited

Oct 4, 2004 18: 54 EST
The night was clear over the Mojave desert. The SpaceShipOne gang watched TV. Namely the documentary on themselves airing on the Discovery Channel. A few hours later, they woke up, blurry eyed. As they stepped out on the desert runway, a golden morning dawned. It was a perfect day - for a perfect flight. It was also time to bag $10 million, and open a new route - to Space.

41 years ago, on August 22, 1963, X-15 pilot Joe Walker reached a height of 354,200 feet - about 67 miles - the highest altitude in NASA's X-15 program. "I hope we can top that flight today," said Burt Rutan.

A few hours and 368 000 feet later, on a press conference, Burt concluded: "The big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds and the naysaying people at Houston ... I think they are looking at each other now and saying, 'We're screwed."

He was referring to the great effort that the team had put not only into the world record, but also the safety. The flight was the proof. Clean and sharp as a polished knife straight into the heart of the naysaying monster.

True the guys didn't have the government resources. But they had something else - a dream and a free spirit. After a failed test flight landing, they needed to adjust some aerodynamics. They could have used a wind tunnel for the tests. That would have cost them a few years and a few hundred grand. Instead, they mounted the wing on a pick-up truck, and raced it across the desert as fast as they could. 3 weeks later, they had all the data needed.

The pilots had a courage of steel. They flew prototype planes and fixed mishaps in flight. Melvill is a test pilot, Binnie was a Navy pilot, and Shane and Siebold are engineers at Scaled Composites.

These guys know their stuff. Said Paul Allen (Microsoft) afterwards; "I've been involved a lot in technology, but this is truly remarkable."

Today had nothing to do with 10 million dollars. Or to put tourists in 4 minute space rides. Today was about something that most don't dare to dream, less even talk about. Once, America was built on this kind of pioneering spirit. Now, the same pioneers are entering space. They won't travel as nations. They'll arrive one by one, in ships built by their own hands. Some will come for gold and some for the adventure, but most in search - for the perfect planet.

Brian Binnie is a Program Business Manager and Test Pilot at Scaled Composites. He has 21 years flight test experience including 20 years of Naval Service in the Strike-Fighter community. He has logged over 4600 hours of flight time in 59 different aircraft and is a licensed Airline Transport Pilot.

Brian’s educational background includes a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and an M.S. in Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics from Brown University and an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University. He is a graduate of the U.S. Navy’s Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, MD and the Naval Aviation Safety School at Monterey CA.

He is a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots and a published member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Binnie’s resumee as test pilot:

Flight Test Experience:

Scaled’s Model 318 White Knight
Scaled’s Model 316 SpaceShipOne
Roton Flight Test
F/A-18 Electronic Warfare Suite Testing and Integration
F/A-18 TSSAM Weapon Launch Envelope Expansion
A-6E TSSAM Weapon Launch Envelope Expansion
F/A-18 SLAM-ER Weapon Launch Envelope Expansion
A-6E SLAM-ER Weapon Launch Envelope Expansion
F/A-18 LEX Fence Performance Map
F/A-18 ATARS Transonic Handling Evaluation
A-7E Structural Flight Test Qualification Program
F/A-18 KC-10 Wing Tip Refueling Pod Evaluation
A-7E KC-10 Wing Tip Refueling Pod Evaluation
F/A-18 F404 2nd Source (Pratt & Whitney vs GE) Engine Envelope Expansion
F/A-18 Hi-Energy Nose Strut -T/Off and Landing Eval
F/A-18 First LGB Weapon Delivery Using Self-Lasing FLIR
Other Related Experience:

Completed for the ROTON: Hazard Analysis / Aircrew Checklists / Normal & Emergency Procedures
Conducted Flight Test / Developed Operational Flight Procedures (Tactics) / Provided Fleet Training (1 to 5 day course) for F/A-18 and AV-8B EW Suites.
Expanded curriculum to include Foreign Military Customers and provided in-country training to Finland, Malaysia and Italy
Wrote all the operational checklist and provided the Fleet Tactics Manual for the TSSAM Weapon System
Planned and executed the first (and only) radar chase of the Tomahawk cruise missile to demonstrate more effective surface fleet training
Prepared and briefed the Australian Air Force on new Operational Flight Software for their F/A-18 aircraft.

Vulcan, Inc and Scaled Composites the companies behind SpaceShipOne, are of 24 companies from several countries competing for the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which will go to the first privately funded group to send three people on a suborbital flight 62.5 miles (100.6 kilometers) high and repeat the feat within two weeks using the same vehicle.

The nonprofit X Prize Foundation is sponsoring the contest to promote the development of a low-cost, efficient craft for space tourism in the same way prize competitions stimulated commercial aviation in the early 20th century. The Ansari X Prize was modeled after the $25,000 prize that Charles Lindbergh won in his Spirit of St. Louis for the first solo New York-to-Paris flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has invested more than $20 million in Scaled Composites to create the manned program -- a fraction of what government-sponsored efforts have cost.

Image of Brian Binnie, courtesy of Scaled Composites

Feature Stories

Latest News

more news

	ExWeb updated expeditions list - Space! Full Story
	Titan: Rain fall, methane rivers, volcanoes spewing ice Full Story
	Life in Space - leaving Eden in search for Paradise Full Story
	ET coming closer: Suns like ours spotted with planetary debris dis Full Story
	The Wow signal - listen up! Full Story
	Mars Society: Looking for a few good Martians - that's YOU buddy! Full Story
	The Space Frontier Foundation Full Story