1.
Scaled Composites
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Scaled Composites is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States. It is known for designs, for its use of non-metal, composite materials. Scaled Composites was established in 1982 and purchased by the Beech Aircraft Corporation in 1985, in 1988, Beechs parent company, Raytheon, sold Scaled back to Rutan, who then sold it to Wyman-Gordon. After Wyman-Gordon was acquired by Precision Castparts Corp, Rutan and ten investors re-acquired the company as Scaled Composites, LLC. Northrop Grumman, a shareholder in the company with a 40% stake. Both companies said Northrop Grummans acquisition would not affect Scaled Composites strategy or involve replacing Burt Rutan as senior manager, the acquisition by Northrop Grumman was completed on August 24,2007. Before forming Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan had designed several aircraft for amateur builders, including the VariEze and he also designed the Beechcraft Starship, which was, however, a commercial failure. These aircraft were distinctive because of their configuration, winglets. Before SpaceShipOne, Rutan was best known for his Voyager aircraft, which his brother, Dick Rutan, the company announced in April 2003 that it was working on a privately funded spacecraft, in an attempt to win the Ansari X PRIZE for the first private, manned spaceflight. This experimental rocket-powered spacecraft was given the name SpaceShipOne, on December 17,2003, they announced SpaceShipOnes first supersonic flight, the first flight of its kind by a privately funded aircraft. SpaceShipOne successfully made this flight, reaching 68,000 feet and 930 mph, the craft was taken aloft by the White Knight carrier aircraft. On the same day, Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, on April 1,2004, the U. S. Department of Transportation issued the company what it called the worlds first license for a sub-orbital manned rocket flight. The Mojave Airport, operating part-time as Mojave Spaceport, is the point for SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne performed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21,2004, Flight 16P on September 29,2004 and Flight 17P on October 4,2004 won the X-Prize for Scaled Composites and SpaceShipOne. Scaled Composites Model 351, is being built for Stratolaunch Systems to provide a platform from which air-launch space missions can be staged, with a wingspan of 117 m, the design has the longest wingspan of any airplane to date. Each of the twin fuselages of the aircraft is 238 feet long and will be supported by 12 main landing gear wheels and it will require 12,000 feet of runway to lift-off. This model which utilized a slightly longer fuselage, larger span, the Rutan Aircraft Factory sold over 600 plan sets for the VariViggen to homebuilders, and eventually about 20 of the aircraft were built. Following the crash of one in New Brunswick, Canada in September 2006 due to wing tank fuel contamination, the prototype aircraft, N27VV, was donated to the EAA AirVenture Museum in 1988
2.
Scaled Composites White Knight
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The Scaled Composites Model 318 White Knight is a jet-powered carrier aircraft used to launch the Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne experimental spacecraft. It was developed by Scaled Composites as part of its Tier One program, the aircraft was subsequently offered by Scaled on a contract basis as a research testbed, and was used for drop tests of the Boeing X-37 spaceplane from June 2005 until April 2006. It is also the predecessor to White Knight Two, the Scaled Composites model number for White Knight is 318. White Knight is registered with the Federal Aviation Administration as N318SL, the White Knight carrier airplane was designed around the twin afterburning J-85 engines, which were selected for their availability and low cost. The aircraft was a new independent design. White Knight first flew on August 1,2002, the flight was aborted shortly after takeoff due to a problem with the outboard wing spoilers. These trailing edge spoilers were designed to increase the glide slope so that the White Knight vehicle could act as a flying simulator for training of SpaceShipOne pilots. During the first flight, the mechanical over-center torque was insufficient to maintain the spoilers in the closed position, the spoilers deployed into the free stream and began a limit cycle forcing the pilot to abort. The spoilers were subsequently disabled completely and the desire for a glide slope matching SpaceShipOne was abandoned. White Knight next flew on August 5,2002, and this time performed well, development proceeded over the next few months. With White Knight developed and evaluated, on April 18,2003, White Knight, subsequently, White Knight flew as part of the Tier One program that won the Ansari X Prize on October 4,2004. Afterwards, White Knight was used to carry and launch DARPAs experimental X-37 spaceplane for its approach and it was followed up by the White Knight Two, which has a similar but larger design. Flights of White Knight are numbered, starting with flight 1 on August 1,2002, flights where SpaceShipOne was carried also get one or two appended letters. An appended C indicates that the flight was a captive carry, if the flight actually flown differs in category from the intended flight, then two letters are appended, the first giving the intended mission and the second the mission actually performed. White Knight was contracted to perform both captive carry and drop test flights of the DARPA/Boeing X-37, first captive carry flight was on June 21,2005, and first drop was on April 7,2006. In late 2006, White Knight flew a seven-flight test program of the Adaptive Compliant Wing developed by FlexSys Inc with funding by the Air Force Research Laboratory. A laminar flow test article was mounted vertically under White Knights centerline pylon for the 20-flight-hour research program that tested the flexible wings aerodynamic characteristics. In July 2014 White Knight made its final planned flight, arriving at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, to become part of the Flying Heritage Collection
3.
Aircraft registration
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In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation, all civil aircraft must be registered with a national aviation authority using procedures set by each country. Every country, even those not party to the Chicago Convention, has a NAA whose functions include the registration of civil aircraft, an aircraft can only be registered once, in the one jurisdiction. The registration identifier must be displayed prominently on the aircraft, most countries also require the registration identifier to be imprinted on a permanent fireproof plate mounted on the fuselage in case of a post-fire/post-crash aircraft accident investigation. Military aircraft typically use tail codes and serial numbers, although each aircraft registration identifier is unique, some countries allow it to be re-used when the aircraft has been sold, destroyed or retired. For example, N3794N is assigned to a Mooney M20F and it had been previously assigned to a Beechcraft Bonanza. Also note that an aircraft may be assigned different registrations during its existence. This can be because the aircraft ownership, jurisdiction of registration. The first use of aircraft registrations was based on the radio callsigns allocated at the London International Radiotelegraphic Conference in 1913, the format was a single letter prefix followed by four other letters. The major nations operating aircraft were allocated a letter prefix. Smaller countries had to share a single letter prefix, but were allocated exclusive use of the first letter of the suffix and this was modified by agreement by the International Bureau at Berne and published on April 23,1913. The agreement stipulated that the nationality marks were to be followed by a then a group of four letters that must include a vowel. This system operated until the adoption of the system in 1928. The International Radiotelegraph Convention at Washington in 1927 revised the list of markings and these were adopted from 1928 and are the basis of the currently used registrations. The markings have been amended and added to over the years, upon registration, the aircraft receives its unique registration, which must be displayed prominently on the aircraft. Annex 7 to the Chicago Convention describes the definitions, location, the aircraft registration is made up of a prefix selected from the countrys callsign prefix allocated by the International Telecommunication Union and the registration suffix. Depending on the country of registration, this suffix is a numeric or alphanumeric code, a supplement to Annex 7 provides an updated list of approved nationality and common marks used by various countries. When painted on the fuselage, the prefix and suffix are usually separated by a dash, when entered in a flight plan, the dash is omitted. In some countries use a number suffix rather than letters, like the United States, South Korea, and Japan
4.
SpaceShipTwo
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The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic, SpaceShipTwo is carried to its launch altitude by a Scaled Composites White Knight Two, before being released to fly on into the upper atmosphere powered by its rocket engine. It then glides back to Earth and performs a conventional runway landing, the spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on 7 December 2009 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. On 29 April 2013, after three years of unpowered testing, the first one constructed successfully performed its first powered test flight. The spaceplane could also be used to carry payloads for NASA. On 31 October 2014 during a test flight, VSS Enterprise, a preliminary investigation suggested the feathering system, the crafts descent device, deployed too early. One pilot was killed, the other was treated for a shoulder injury after parachuting from the stricken spacecraft. The second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, VSS Unity, was unveiled on 19 February 2016, the vehicle is currently undergoing flight testing. The SpaceShipTwo project is based in part on technology developed for the first-generation SpaceShipOne, the Spaceship Company licenses this technology from Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan, the designer of the predecessor technology. SpaceShipTwo is a low-aspect-ratio passenger spaceplane and its capacity will be eight people — six passengers and two pilots. SpaceShipTwo will reach 4,200 km/h, using a hybrid rocket engine — the RocketMotorTwo. It launches from its ship, White Knight Two, at an altitude of 15,000 metres. After 70 seconds, the engine cuts out and the spacecraft will coast to its peak altitude. SpaceShipTwos crew cabin is 3.7 m long and 2.3 m in diameter, the wing span is 8.2 m, the length is 18 m and the tail height is 4.6 m. SpaceShipTwo uses a feathered reentry system, feasible due to the low speed of reentry, in contrast, other orbital spacecraft re-enter at orbital speeds, closer to 25,000 km/h, using heat shields. SpaceShipTwo is furthermore designed to re-enter the atmosphere at any angle and it will decelerate through the atmosphere, switching to a gliding position at an altitude of 24 km, and will take 25 minutes to glide back to the spaceport. SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two are, respectively, roughly twice the size of the first-generation SpaceShipOne and mother ship White Knight, SpaceShipTwo has 43 and 33 cm -diameter windows for the passengers viewing pleasure, and all seats will recline back during landing to decrease the discomfort of G-forces. Reportedly, the craft can land safely even if a failure occurs during flight
5.
Richard Branson
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Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He founded the Virgin Group, which more than 400 companies. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age, at the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business, in 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Bransons Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic airline, in March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for services to entrepreneurship. For his work in retail, music and transport, his taste for adventure, in 2002 he was named in the BBCs poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In January 2016, Forbes listed Bransons estimated net worth at $5.2 billion, Branson was born in Blackheath, London, the eldest of three children of Eve Branson, a former ballet dancer and air hostess, and Edward James Branson, a barrister. His grandfather, the Right Honourable Sir George Arthur Harwin Branson, was a judge of the High Court of Justice, Branson was educated at Scaitcliffe School, a prep school in Berkshire, before briefly attending Cliff View House School in Sussex. His third great-grandfather, John Edward Branson, left England for India in 1793 and his father, Harry Wilkins Branson, later joined him in Madras. On the show Finding Your Roots, Branson was shown to have 3. 9% South Asian DNA, Branson attended Stowe School, an independent school in Buckinghamshire until the age of sixteen. Branson has dyslexia and had poor performance, on his last day at school, his headmaster, Robert Drayson. Bransons parents were supportive of his endeavours from an early age, One of her most successful ventures was building and selling wooden tissue boxes and wastepaper bins. Branson started his business from a church where he ran Student magazine. Branson interviewed several prominent personalities of the late 1960s for the magazine including Mick Jagger, Branson advertised popular records in The Student and it was an overnight success. Trading under the name Virgin, he records for considerably less than the High Street outlets. Branson once said, There is no point in starting your own business unless you do it out of a sense of frustration, the name Virgin was suggested by one of Bransons early employees because they were all new at business. At the time, many products were sold under restrictive marketing agreements that limited discounting, Branson eventually started a record shop in Oxford Street in London. In 1971, Branson was questioned in connection with the selling of records in Virgin stores that had been declared export stock, the matter was never brought before a court because Branson agreed to repay any unpaid tax and a fine
6.
Nose art
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Nose art is a decorative painting or design on the fuselage of an aircraft, usually on the front fuselage. The appeal, in part, came from nose art not being officially approved, because of its individual and unofficial nature, it is considered folk art, inseparable from work as well as representative of a group. It can also be compared to sophisticated graffiti, in both cases, the artist is often anonymous, and the art itself is ephemeral. In addition, it relies on materials immediately available, Nose art is largely a military tradition, but civilian airliners operated by the Virgin Group feature Virgin Girls on the nose as part of their livery. In a broad sense, the art of several airlines such as the Eskimo of Alaska Airlines, can be called nose art. There were exceptions, including the VIII Bomber Command, 301st Bomb Group B-17F Whizzer, placing personalized decorations on fighting aircraft began with Italian and German pilots. The first recorded piece of art was a sea monster painted on an Italian flying boat in 1913. This was followed by the practice of painting a mouth beneath the propellers spinner. The cavallino rampante of the Italian ace Francesco Baracca was another well-known image, Nose art of that era was often conceived and produced not by the pilots, but rather the aircraft ground crews. Another World War I examples included the Hat in the Ring of the American 94th Aero Squadron, three decades later, the British pilots spotted it on German planes during World War II. At the height of the war, nose-artists were in high demand in the USAAF and were paid quite well for their services while AAF commanders tolerated nose art in an effort to boost aircrew morale. The U. S. Navy, by contrast, prohibited nose art, the work was done by professional civilian artists as well as talented amateur servicemen. In 1941, for instance, the 39th Pursuit Squadron commissioned a Bell Aircraft artist to design, in November 1941, AVG pilots saw a 112 Squadron Tomahawk in an illustrated weekly and immediately adopted the shark-face motif for their own planes. This work was done by the pilots and ground crew in the field, however, the insignia for the Flying Tigers - a winged Bengal Tiger jumping through a stylized V for Victory symbol - was developed by graphic artists from the Walt Disney Company. Similarly, when in 1943 the 39th Fighter Squadron became the first American squadron in their theatre with 100 kills, tony Starcer was the resident artist for the 91st Bomb Group, one of the initial six groups fielded by the Eighth Air Force. Starcer painted over a hundred pieces of renowned B-17 nose art, a commercial artist named Brinkman, from Chicago, was responsible for the zodiac-themed nose art of the B-24 Liberator-equipped 834th Bomb Squadron, based at RAF Sudbury, England. It was also believed by the crews that the nose art was bringing luck to the planes. Some World War II era nose art was commemorative or intended to honor certain people such as the B-29 Superfortress, in the Korean War, nose art was popular with units operating A-26 and B-29 bombers, C-119 Flying Boxcar transports, as well as USAF fighter-bombers
7.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Mojave Air and Space Port
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The Mojave Air and Space Port, also known as the Civilian Aerospace Test Centre, is located in Mojave, California, at an elevation of 2,791 feet. It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, in 1935, Kern County established the Mojave Airport a half mile east of town to serve the gold and silver mining industry in the area. The airport consisted of two runways, one of which was oiled, but it lacked any fueling or servicing facilities. In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board began improvements to the airport for defense purposes that included two 4,500 x 150-ft. Kern County agreed the airport could be taken over by the military in the event of war, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States Marine Corps took over the airport and expanded it into Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station Mojave. The two existing runways were extended and a third one added, barracks were constructed to house 2,734 male and 376 female military personnel. Civilian employment at the base would peak at 176, the Marines would eventually spend more than $7 million on the base, which totaled 2,312 acres. Many of the Corps World War II aces received their training at Mojave. During World War II, Mojave hosted 29 aircraft squadrons, four Carrier Aircraft Service Detachments, at its peak, the air station had 145 training and other aircraft. Mojave also had a 75 x 156 foot swimming pool that was used to train aviators in emergency water egress, the bases 900-seat auditorium hosted several USO shows that featured Bob Hope, Frances Langford and Marilyn Maxwell. With the end of World War II, MCAAS was disestablished on February 7,1946, the Navy used the airport for drone operations for less than a year, closing it on January 1,1947. The base remained closed for four years until the outbreak of the Korean War, Mojave was reactivated as an auxiliary landing field to MCAS El Toro. The airport was recommissioned as a MCAAS on December 31,1953, Squadrons used Mojave for ordnance training when El Toro had bad weather. Marine Corps reserve units were deployed to Mojave for two-week periods. MCAAS Mojave personnel peaked at 400 military and 200 civilians during this period, in 1961, after the Marine Corps transferred operations to MCAS El Centro, Kern County obtained title to the airport. In February 1972, the East Kern Airport District was formed to administer the airport, to a great extent EKAD was the brainchild of Kern County rancher and aviator Dan Sabovich, who heavily lobbied the state for the airport districts creation and ran EKAD until 2002. During the 1970s, commuter air carrier Golden West Airlines provided scheduled service operated with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops direct to Los Angeles. On November 20,2012, the EKAD Board of Directors voted to change the name of the district to the Mojave Air, officials said that the spaceport name is well known around the world, but EKAD is not
10.
Fatigue (material)
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In materials science, fatigue is the weakening of a material caused by repeatedly applied loads. It is the progressive and localized damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values that cause such damage may be less than the strength of the material typically quoted as the ultimate tensile stress limit. Fatigue occurs when a material is subjected to repeated loading and unloading, if the loads are above a certain threshold, microscopic cracks will begin to form at the stress concentrators such as the surface, persistent slip bands, and grain interfaces. Eventually a crack will reach a size, the crack will propagate suddenly. The shape of the structure will affect the fatigue life. Round holes and smooth transitions or fillets will therefore increase the strength of the structure. ASTM defines fatigue life, Nf, as the number of cycles of a specified character that a specimen sustains before failure of a specified nature occurs. Engineers have used any of three methods to determine the life of a material, the stress-life method, the strain-life method. One method to predict fatigue life of materials is the Uniform Material Law, UML was developed for fatigue life prediction of aluminium and titanium alloys by the end of 20th century and extended to high-strength steels, and cast iron. Macroscopic and microscopic discontinuities as well as component design features which cause stress concentrations are common locations at which the process begins. Fatigue is a process that has a degree of randomness, often showing considerable scatter even in seemingly identical sample in well controlled environments, Fatigue is usually associated with tensile stresses but fatigue cracks have been reported due to compressive loads. The greater the applied stress range, the shorter the life, Fatigue life scatter tends to increase for longer fatigue lives. Materials do not recover when rested, some materials exhibit a theoretical fatigue limit below which continued loading does not lead to fatigue failure. High cycle fatigue strength can be described by stress-based parameters, a load-controlled servo-hydraulic test rig is commonly used in these tests, with frequencies of around 20–50 Hz. Other sorts of machines—like resonant magnetic machines—can also be used, to achieve frequencies up to 250 Hz, low cycle fatigue is associated with localized plastic behavior in metals, thus, a strain-based parameter should be used for fatigue life prediction in metals. Testing is conducted with constant strain amplitudes typically at 0. 01–5 Hz,1837, Wilhelm Albert publishes the first article on fatigue. He devised a test machine for conveyor chains used in the Clausthal mines,1839, Jean-Victor Poncelet describes metals as being tired in his lectures at the military school at Metz
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