Scaled

Scaled Composites & the Rutan Aircraft Factory

Burt Rutan's companies have a long history in composite airframe construction leading to the development of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, the first winning the Ansari X-Prize.

Composite Airframes

The Rutan Aircraft Factory worked with NASA on the Model 35 AD-1, an experimental oblique winged airplane, in 1979. From 1983, Scaled has worked on the wings and fins of the Peggasus rocket in 1990, the aeroshell and surfaces of the DC-X in 1993 and the fuselage of the Roton ATV in 1999. In 1998 it built three full-scale atmospheric test airframes for the Model 276 NASA X-38.

SpaceShipOne, Two, Roc & LauncherOne

Scaled Composites developed the Model 316 SpaceShipOne and Model 318 WhitKnightOne mothership in 2003, completing the first private crewed spaceflight in history winning the Ansari X-Prize.

The system was followed up in 2008 by Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (Model 339) and WhiteKnightTwo (Model 348), and by the large Stratolaunch Roc (Model 351) in 2019.

Through its The Spaceship Company joint venture with Virgin the company built the LauncherOne, 747 bourne, air lifted rocket.