The White Knight joins Flying Heritage Collection

EVERETT — Shutters clicked as the gangly white airplane buzzed over Paine Field.

A few wows and goshes could be heard from the roughly 100 people gathered to see a piece of aviation history arrive at the Flying Heritage Collection.

After a couple flybys, the plane, the White Knight, gently touched down and taxied to just outside the museum’s main hangar. The collection’s newest addition helped open the era of private and commercial space flight in 2004, when it launched the first manned privately owned space craft, SpaceShipOne.

Both planes were built and developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a collaboration between aerospace company Scaled Composites and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the Flying Heritage Collection.

SpaceShipOne claimed the $10 million Ansari X Prize for making two manned flights in as many weeks reaching at least 62 miles above sea level, where outer space begins. Competing teams were not allowed to accept any government money.

The White Knight carried SpaceShipOne under its belly to about 50,000 feet, where it launched the smaller, rocket-powered craft. By hitching a ride, the spacecraft needed to carry less fuel, making it easier for it to reach sub-orbital flight.

Early aviation pioneers used a similar method for launching the Bell X-1, the first aircraft to break the sound barrier.

Aviation aficionados at Monday’s event marveled at the White Knight’s innovative design that enables it to carry a much heavier load than its thin, twin-boom frame suggests.

They pointed out the plane’s stranger features — and there are plenty of them. It’s cockpit sits several feet off the ground, high enough to fit SpaceShipOne beneath its belly.

“It’s a unique design,” said Valerie Neal, curator for space flight at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “The purpose of the White Knight is to do the heavy lifting, to get SpaceShipOne to a high enough altitude that it doesn’t have to carry as much fuel.”

See video of the White Knight as it flew to Everett.

SpaceShipOne is in the museum’s Milestones of Flight Hall alongside the Spirit of St. Louis, in which Charles Lindbergh made the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight in 1927.

The collection holds some of “the crown jewels” of aviation history, and including the spacecraft provoked much debate among staff, Neal said. “It was brand new. It had just landed a few weeks before.”

But the craft opened the door to private space flight, she said. “It really was poking the first hole into space and paving the way for private passengers to become a reality.”

About half a dozen firms are pursuing commercial space travel, and some are getting close, she said.

Scaled Composites is currently developing SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic, which plans to operate a space tourism service.

The craft is in testing, but has not traveled into space yet, said Peter Siebold, a test pilot and aerospace engineer for Scaled Composites.

He and another pilot flew the White Knight for its final flight to Paine Field.

“It flies very much like a regular airplane,” Siebold, 43, said.

The Tacoma native learned to fly as a kid from his father, Klaus Siebold.

When Peter was a toddler, the elder Siebold built a booster seat from two-by-fours, wrapped with foam, for his son to sit on when they went flying in his single-engine plane.

“That’s all we did. That’s all he wanted to do. I knew he would be a pilot,” Klaus Siebold, 79, said.

Peter Siebold never imagined that he would play such a role in aerospace history, though. He joined Scaled Composites in 1996, and eight years later, the company claimed the Ansari X Prize.

It’s been 10 years, and several companies are closing in on offering commercial space travel, but it has not happened yet.

“When we won the X Prize, we thought it was just around the corner,” Siebold said.

Of course, “Trans-Atlantic air service didn’t start the day after Lindbergh first crossed the Atlantic,” he said.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.