Published: Wednesday, January 14, 2009
SpaceShipOne replica hung at flight museum
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Kevin Nortz / The Herald
Riggers hang the full-size replica of Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne at the Flying Heritage Museum in south Everett on Tuesday.
EVERETT -- Part of the history of space flight is now on display in Snohomish County.
A full-size replica of SpaceShipOne, the first privately built rocket to take passengers into space, was hoisted into the rafters Tuesday at the Flying Heritage Collection museum at Paine Field.
Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and Mercer Island billionaire, financed the $20 million flight in 2004 that earned a $10 million prize. Last year, he moved the Flying Heritage Collection museum from the Arlington Airport to a remodeled hangar at Paine Field to better display his collection of World War II-era fighter planes.
The real SpaceShipOne is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., so Allen and Flying Heritage Collection officials decided the next best thing for the museum was to bring the replica.
The copy was one of six made the year after the flight, from the same mold as the real ship, museum director Adrian Hunt said. They're all 28 feet long. Many of the copies have found permanent homes, while others have floated from place to place.
Displaying the replica is in keeping with the museum's theme of innovation, Hunt said. Many of the other aircraft on display represent technological leaps brought about by necessity during World War II.
One aircraft at the museum, the German ME-163 Komet, was the world's first operational rocket-propelled aircraft equipped to carry a human being.
SpaceShipOne's creators said the Komet, built by Nazi Germany but never used for a manned flight, was an inspiration for the design, Hunt said.
"That is in direct lineage," he said.
About 25 people were visiting the museum when the SpaceShipOne replica was slowly lifted to the ceiling. Most of the visitors were there to see the World War II planes and didn't know that Tuesday's event was planned.
"I think it looks great," said Joyce Johnson of Bellevue, after the replica had been lifted about 20 feet into the air.
Aviation enthusiasts Fred Isaac of Sammamish and Jack Hutchison of Kirkland also were there by accident for the replica's arrival.
"It's pretty cool," Hutchison said.
The two were familiar with the work of SpaceShipOne's designer.
"It just reminds me again what a genius Burt Rutan is, in a class by himself," Isaac said.
Rutan, a native of the Portland, Ore., area, designed SpaceShipOne and also the Voyager, the first aircraft to fly nonstop around the world without refueling. That trip was made in 1986.
In 1996, the Ansari family of Dallas created the X Prize Foundation, offering $10 million to anyone who could create a spacecraft and take people outside the Earth's atmosphere twice within two weeks.
The idea was to encourage private companies to create groundbreaking advances in space flight, according to the Flying Heritage Collection.
The craft had to carry three people or their equivalent weight at least 62 miles above the Earth -- generally considered the point where space begins.
Allen enlisted Rutan to design the craft. It made its first flight in December 2003 and won the prize with two flights from California's Mojave Desert on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, 2004.
It was lifted nine miles up above the desert attached to the belly of a mother ship, then fired its own rockets and zoomed off at nearly 2,300 mph to the edge of space. The first qualifying flight was piloted by Mike Melville, the second by Brian Binnie.
The flights not only enabled Allen to recoup half of his investment, they also earned him the X Prize trophy. Museum officials plan to display the 5-foot-tall piece of hardware near the spaceship replica.
Rutan and entrepreneur Richard Branson are now working on another aircraft, SpaceShipTwo, Hunt said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
SpaceShipOne
Capacity: One pilot, two passengers
Length: 28 feet
Wingspan: 8 feet, 9 inches
Core diameter: 5 feet
Loaded weight: 6,380 pounds
Thrust: 16,523 pounds
Maximum speed: Mach 3 (2,284 mph)
Maximum altitude: 70 miles
A full-size replica of SpaceShipOne, the first privately built rocket to take passengers into space, was hoisted into the rafters Tuesday at the Flying Heritage Collection museum at Paine Field.
Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder and Mercer Island billionaire, financed the $20 million flight in 2004 that earned a $10 million prize. Last year, he moved the Flying Heritage Collection museum from the Arlington Airport to a remodeled hangar at Paine Field to better display his collection of World War II-era fighter planes.
The real SpaceShipOne is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., so Allen and Flying Heritage Collection officials decided the next best thing for the museum was to bring the replica.
The copy was one of six made the year after the flight, from the same mold as the real ship, museum director Adrian Hunt said. They're all 28 feet long. Many of the copies have found permanent homes, while others have floated from place to place.
Displaying the replica is in keeping with the museum's theme of innovation, Hunt said. Many of the other aircraft on display represent technological leaps brought about by necessity during World War II.
One aircraft at the museum, the German ME-163 Komet, was the world's first operational rocket-propelled aircraft equipped to carry a human being.
SpaceShipOne's creators said the Komet, built by Nazi Germany but never used for a manned flight, was an inspiration for the design, Hunt said.
"That is in direct lineage," he said.
About 25 people were visiting the museum when the SpaceShipOne replica was slowly lifted to the ceiling. Most of the visitors were there to see the World War II planes and didn't know that Tuesday's event was planned.
"I think it looks great," said Joyce Johnson of Bellevue, after the replica had been lifted about 20 feet into the air.
Aviation enthusiasts Fred Isaac of Sammamish and Jack Hutchison of Kirkland also were there by accident for the replica's arrival.
"It's pretty cool," Hutchison said.
The two were familiar with the work of SpaceShipOne's designer.
"It just reminds me again what a genius Burt Rutan is, in a class by himself," Isaac said.
Rutan, a native of the Portland, Ore., area, designed SpaceShipOne and also the Voyager, the first aircraft to fly nonstop around the world without refueling. That trip was made in 1986.
In 1996, the Ansari family of Dallas created the X Prize Foundation, offering $10 million to anyone who could create a spacecraft and take people outside the Earth's atmosphere twice within two weeks.
The idea was to encourage private companies to create groundbreaking advances in space flight, according to the Flying Heritage Collection.
The craft had to carry three people or their equivalent weight at least 62 miles above the Earth -- generally considered the point where space begins.
Allen enlisted Rutan to design the craft. It made its first flight in December 2003 and won the prize with two flights from California's Mojave Desert on Sept. 29 and Oct. 4, 2004.
It was lifted nine miles up above the desert attached to the belly of a mother ship, then fired its own rockets and zoomed off at nearly 2,300 mph to the edge of space. The first qualifying flight was piloted by Mike Melville, the second by Brian Binnie.
The flights not only enabled Allen to recoup half of his investment, they also earned him the X Prize trophy. Museum officials plan to display the 5-foot-tall piece of hardware near the spaceship replica.
Rutan and entrepreneur Richard Branson are now working on another aircraft, SpaceShipTwo, Hunt said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
SpaceShipOne
Capacity: One pilot, two passengers
Length: 28 feet
Wingspan: 8 feet, 9 inches
Core diameter: 5 feet
Loaded weight: 6,380 pounds
Thrust: 16,523 pounds
Maximum speed: Mach 3 (2,284 mph)
Maximum altitude: 70 miles
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