Wed, Dec 22, 2004
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)
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