Scaled Composites White Knight Two
This ambitious research aircraft experimented with pivoting wings between 1979 and 1982, but a new version is in use today. The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two (WK2) is a jet-powered light cargo aircraft used to loft Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo spacecraft to launch altitude. Built by Scaled Composites as the first of a two-stage, suborbital-space manned launch system, the WK2 can trace its lineage all the way back to NASA’s Proteus experimental plane. With its “open architecture” design available for anyone to modify, and explicit plans for multi-purpose use, the aircraft could also operate as a zero-g aircraft for passenger training or microgravity science flights, handle missions in high-altitude testing more generally, or be used to launch payloads other than SpaceShipTwo.