Scaled Composites White Knight Two

The Scaled Composites White Knight Two, company Model 348, is a twin-fuselage quadjet cargo aircraft that was used to carry the SpaceShipTwo spaceplane to its release altitude. Scaled Composites developed it between 2007 and 2010 as the first stage of the Tier 1b two-stage crewed suborbital launch system, building on the original White Knight, which in turn grew out of the Proteus. It is roughly three times larger than that earlier mothership and has a wingspan of about 43 metres, with four Pratt and Whitney Canada PW308 turbofan engines hung under the wings on pylons and two cruciform tails. Its open architecture was meant to allow zero-gravity training flights, other high-altitude testing, or the launch of other payloads. The first aircraft, named VMS Eve after Richard Branson's mother, was unveiled on 28 July 2008 and first flew on 21 December 2008. Virgin Galactic was the launch customer.