Aerospace Snapshot - White Knight and SpaceShipOne

Equally as important as the design of the SpaceShipOne itself was the design and creation of White Knight the jet-powered aircraft that would be responsible for launching the spacecraft. Although White Knight began flying about a year before SpaceShipOne, construction of both vehicles began at about the same time. High-strength, lightweight composite fiber/epoxy were used to build the primary structure of both vehicles. Photo Courtesy of Tyson V. Rininger, from SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History by Dan Linehan.