Two Very Different Ways To Space

By ANN Correspondent Christopher Armstrong

During a powerful thunderstorm at the Theater in the Woods Monday night at Airventure 2005 Mike Melville and Scott Crossfield compared their rides to space. Mike showered endless praise on Crossfield calling him "his hero."

Crossfield returned just as many good natured humorous jabs at Melville, at one point replying to the question 'how did it feel after your first release from the B-52?'

"I didn't have time for psycho analysis, I was busy working. "said Crossfield. "I was flying an airplane. I don't know what you were doing!"

To which Melville responded "Well, I was scared!"

Crossfield and Melville took turns pointing out how very different their two vehicles were. Crossfield noted that the fuel load of 25,000 pounds on the X-15 was greater then the combined total gross weight of both the White Knight and SpaceShipOne at around 24,000 pounds. Then he added "I won't add the weight of the B-52, because that just wouldn't be fair!"

Melville observed other differences in the programs. SpaceShipOne was designed to achieve maximum altitude, and achieves only the speed required to achieve that goal, reaching Mach 3.09 on the final flight.

The X-15 program was primarily an investigation of high speed flight with a maximum speed of 4520 mph reached. Altitude was not a primary goal for the X-15 program but the record of 107,960 meters lasted for decades.

Brian Binnie's X-prize flight reached 111,996 meters on October 4, 2004 finally breaking the X-15's record as an added bonus for the SpaceShipOne program. There were only 17 powered flights of SpaceShipOne -- all in one year.

There were 199 X-15 flights spread over 3 aircraft and 2 B-52 launch platforms. Range for the X-15 was 280 miles, while SpaceShipOne never got farther then 50 miles from its home base until the flight to Oshkosh.

The large crowd was given an opportunity to submit questions and were greatly informed and entertained by the answers given by their heros on stage. After one questioner asked "What has made you so successful?" they both agreed that their wives had been one of the keys.

They agreed that though they never made much money their lives had been rich with the great experiences of flying so many different aircraft, and having their wonderful wives throughout their lives.

The audience showed their appreciation of these two legends in aviation with a standing ovation at the end of the evening that finally drowned out the sound of the pounding rain on the metal roof of the theater in the woods.

FMI: www.scaled.com/tier1