Audience Journeys Into Space With SpaceShipOne Pilot At EAA Wright Dinner

In a tribute to Orville and Wilbur Wright, a sellout crowd of more than 500 people gathered in Oshkosh, WI, to see and hear one of today's true aviation pioneers at the EAA Wright Brothers Memorial Banquet Friday night at EAA AirVenture Museum's Eagle Hangar.

SpaceShipOne pilot and EAA's own Mike Melvill thrilled the audience with an exclusive pilot briefing of his September 29 space launch in Mojave, California. His was the first of two successful flights by the team at Scaled Composites, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for Mojave Space Ventures and his boss and fellow EAA member, Burt Rutan.

"Last year, EAA's role was to recognize history and 100 years of aviation," said EAA President Tom Poberezny. "Also our theme was to launch the second century of flight." That launch occurred literally, he said, when a group of aircraft homebuilders - EAA'ers - did something that was believed to be impossible: put an aircraft into suborbital space.

With a multimedia presentation also seen on EAA's special webcast of the event, Melvill guided his audience through N328KF (SpaceShipOne's N-number, signifying 328-thousand-feet) from cockpit to propulsion system. He then described his epic flight, from take-off beneath White Knight, ascent to altitude, separation and launch. The audience gasped when Melvill experienced 29 unexpected rolls, then expressed collective relief when he corrected the rates and reached the apex at nearly 338,000 feet. Video depiction of his feathered re-entry and glide back to earth prompted one of several standing ovations.

(Photos courtesy of EAA)

FMI: www.eaa.org