During test flights of White Knight and SpaceShipOne, the pilots had a long list of tasks to complete. As a result, after release, pilots only had 10-20 minutes of flight time. In preparation for the first rocket-engine test flight, pilot Brian Binnie performed a cold flow of the rocket engine (above photo), in which he followed all the procedures to run the rocket engine, except igniting the oxidizer and fuel. Photo courtesy of Scaled Composites, from SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History by Dan Linehan.
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