WhiteKnightTwo Mothership
to Debut at EAA AirVenture

Oshkosh, Wis. - February 26, 2009 — The space launch vehicle that will ferry SpaceShipTwo and its private astronauts to sub-orbital space will make its world public debut on July 27 at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009. The vehicle, WhiteKnightTwo’s Virgin Mothership Eve, will arrive in Oshkosh as part of the opening-day air show. AirVenture attendees will have opportunities to view the vehicle on the ground each day until it departs during the Saturday, Aug. 1 air show. Event organizers and Virgin Galactic officials are hopeful to arrange additional showcase flights during the week. "This will be a major highlight of our event. Since the appearance of the X-Prize-winning WhiteKnight and SpaceShipOne at AirVenture four years ago, our members have eagerly awaited the next advancements from the Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites innovators," said EAA president and AirVenture chairman Tom Poberezny. "Burt Rutan, the chief designer of Virgin Galactic's launch vehicle and spacecraft, truly embodies the EAA spirit. His accomplishments show how far our passion for building and flying aircraft can go.” Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said the launch vehicle has a unique heavy lift, high altitude capability and an open architecture driven design that provides for maximum versatility in the weight, mass, and volume of its payload potential. “Its carbon composite construction also gives unprecedented fuel efficiency and the strength to perform high g maneuvers and parabolic flight," he said. In addition to ferrying SpaceShipTwo and private astronauts to suborbital space, the launch vehicle will also ferry science packages and payload on the first stage of the Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space experience. According to Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic plans to conduct test flights of VMS Eve carrying SpaceShipTwo during the second half of 2009. Dwarfing its namesake predecessor, WhiteKnightTwo is the world's largest all carbon composite flying vehicle. The 140-foot wingspan is the longest single carbon composite aviation component ever manufactured.

Air-to-air of Eve’s maiden flight in December 2008. Photo credit: EAA AirVenture The nose art on Eve. Photo credit: Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo is the world’s largest all carbon composite flying vehicle. Photo credit: Scaled Composites

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