72201 BURT RUTAN WHITE KNIGHT AND SS-1 (SPACE SHIP ONE) SUB-ORBITAL SPACEPLANE

The Burt Rutan White Knight (also known as the White Knight One or WK1) is a modern American experimental jet-propelled aircraft. The prototype flight took place in 2002. The propulsion is provided by two General Electric turbojet engines J85-GE-5 with afterburner. Until now, only a single copy of this unusual plane has been produced. The White Knight was constructed by the American inventor and aircraft designer Burt Rutan to launch into the atmosphere the manned spacecraft Space Ship One (SS1) - which is the first private spacecraft of its type in the history of aviation and astronautics. White Knight returns to the airport after the SS1 has been launched into space. The machine was created as part of the X Prize competition. During the work on the White Knight and SS1 sets, many valuable experiences were collected, which were used in the design of the next WK2 plane / spacecraft. It is worth noting that in 2005-2006, the White Knight was used to launch the military unmanned space shuttle X-37 into orbit.