Scaled Composites: История и достижения американской аэрокосмической компании.

American aerospace company

Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to develop experimental aircraft, the company now focuses on designing and developing concept craft and prototype fabrication processes for aircraft and other vehicles. It is known for unconventional designs, for its use of non metal, composite materials, and for winning the Ansari X Prize with its experimental spacecraft SpaceShipOne.

Scaled Composites was established in 1982 and purchased by the Beech Aircraft Corporation in 1985, as a result of the collaboration on the Starship project. In 1988, Beech's parent company, Raytheon, sold Scaled back to Rutan, who then sold it to Wyman Gordon. After Wyman Gordon was acquired by Precision Castparts Corp., Rutan and ten investors re acquired the company as Scaled Composites, LLC. Northrop Grumman, a major shareholder in the company with a 40% stake, said it would acquire the company outright on July 20, 2007. Both companies said Northrop Grumman's acquisition would not affect Scaled Composites' strategy or involve replacing Burt Rutan as senior manager. The acquisition by Northrop Grumman was completed on August 24, 2007. Rutan retired in April 2011. Ben Diachun, a long time employee, was president of Scaled from Oct 31, 2015, until April 2019. Cory Bird, another long time employee, became president of Scaled in April 2019.

Before forming Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan had designed several aircraft for amateur builders, including the VariEze, often considered one of general aviation's most innovative designs. He also designed the Beechcraft Starship, which was a commercial failure. These aircraft were distinctive because of their canard configuration, winglets and pusher propellers. In 2005, the single jet Global Flyer was flown by billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett on the first solo non stop, non refueled flight around the world, and later in the longest flight in history:
Although their role was not widely publicized, Rutan and John Roncz, who had provided aerodynamics support to a number of previous Rutan projects including Starship, helped design, and Scaled Composites manufactured, the double slotted wing mast for the Stars & Stripes catamaran for Dennis Conner's entry in the 1988 America's Cup.

The company announced in April 2003 that it was working on a privately funded spacecraft, in an attempt to win the Ansari X PRIZE for the first private crewed spaceflight. This experimental rocket powered spacecraft was given the name SpaceShipOne. On December 17, 2003, they announced SpaceShipOne's first supersonic flight, the first flight of its kind by a privately funded aircraft. SpaceShipOne successfully made this flight, reaching 68000 feet (20726 m) and 930 mph (Mach 1.2). The craft was taken aloft by the White Knight carrier aircraft. On the same day, Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, confirmed publicly the rumors that he was the angel investor behind the SpaceShipOne venture. On April 1, 2004, the U. S. Department of Transportation issued the company what it called the world's first license for a sub orbital crewed rocket flight. The license was approved by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which has backed licenses for more than 150 commercial launches of uncrewed launch vehicles in its 20 years, but never a license for crewed flight on a sub orbital trajectory. The Mojave Airport, operating part time as Mojave Spaceport, is the launch point for SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne performed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004. Flight 16P on September 29, 2004, and Flight 17P on October 4, 2004, won the X Prize for Scaled Composites and SpaceShipOne.

Scaled Composites Model 351 (nicknamed the "Roc") was built for Stratolaunch Systems to provide a platform from which air launch space missions can be staged. In August 2015, Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey stated the company has so far assembled "roughly 200,000 pounds of composite structure" for the vehicle and if put on a football field, "its wingtips would extend beyond the goalposts by 15 feet on each side." Each of the twin fuselages of the aircraft is 238 feet (73 m) long and will be supported by 12 main landing gear wheels and two nose gear wheels. It will require 12,000 feet of runway to lift off.

Model Name Firstflight Description 115 Beechcraft Starship 1982 85% scale prototype, twin turboprop, canard business aircraft B 2 Spirit Scale model for radar cross section tests of the stealth bomber 133 ATTT 1986 STOL, tandem wing transport demonstrator 143 Triumph 1988 Three surface, twin engine very light jet prototype for Beechcraft IAI Searcher 1992 larger AAI RQ 2 Pioneer reconnaissance UAV Model TRA324 Scarab 1992 Reconnaissance UAV for Teledyne Ryan (Northrop Grumman since 1999) DC X 1993 structural aeroshell and control surfaces for McDonnell Douglas 151 ARES 1990 single jet Close Air Support demonstrator Pegasus rocket 1990 Wings and fins for Orbital ATK 158 Pond Racer 1990 twin boom air racer Bell Eagle Eye 1998 UAV tiltrotor demonstrator for Bell Helicopter 205/206 1991 designs for airlaunch of a booster rocket heavier than Orion Industries UAV Model 706 Sea Bat 1995 UAV prototype for the US Navy 247 Vantage 1996 prototype single engine very light jet for VisionAire 271 V Jet II 1997 single jet demonstrator for Williams International 276 NASA X 38 1998 fuselage of experimental emergency re entry vehicle for the ISS 281 Proteus 1998 High Altitude Long Endurance twinjet with tandem wings Roton ATV 1999 Fuselage for the Rotary Rocket concept of a reusable SSTO manned spacecraft 287 NASA ERAST Program proof of concept model for 25908.00 m UAV 309 M 309 CarbonAero 2000 Piston push pull six seater prototype for the Adam A500 326 X 47A Pegasus 2001 Northrop Grumman Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle demonstrator 302 Toyota TA 1 2002 prototype general aviation four seater for Toyota 316 SpaceShipOne 2003 experimental sub orbital ship for air launch, within Tier One 318 White Knight 2003 twinjet mother ship for SpaceShipOne derived from Proteus 311 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer 2004 Solo Jet aircraft for nonstop circumnavigation 339 SpaceShipTwo 2008 Virgin Galactic's air launched Sub orbital ship for space tourism 348 White Knight Two 2008 quadjet mother ship lifting the SpaceShipTwo to altitude 351 Stratolaunch 2019 built for Stratolaunch Systems to carry air launch to orbit rockets, largest aircraft by wingspan 367 BiPod 2011 experimental hybrid electric flying car 395 Proteus development Proposed unmanned and armed version for the USAF Hunter Killer program 396 RQ 4 Global Hawk variant Smaller, armed version of the RQ 4 Global Hawk for the USAF Hunter Killer program 400 Swift 2016 jet trainer contender for the T X program 401 Deimos & Phobos 2017 manned and unmanned Close Air Support demonstrators

US flight based testing and evaluation of the GippsAero GA8 Airvan manufactured by GippsAero of Victoria, Australia, including flight evaluation of the external belly cargo pod. Scaled Composites will work with JetZero in helping to develop a prototype blended wing body Z 5 demonstrator tanker aircraft Next Generation Air Refueling System (NGAS) for the US Air Force.

On July 26, 2007, an explosion occurred during testing of SpaceShipTwo's systems, killing three employees and injuring three more. On October 31, 2014, the SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise broke apart during an in flight powered test. The incident killed one pilot and severely injured the other, resulting in the total loss of the vehicle; both pilots were Scaled Composites employees. On July 28, 2015, the NTSB released the final report on its investigation of the incident, concluding that for an unknown reason the pilot had released the "Feather" of SpaceShipTwo prematurely, leading directly to the craft's disintegration.