Scaled Composites

Scaled Composites, LLC

Type	Division
Industry	Aerospace
Founded	Mojave, California (1982)
Headquarters	Mojave, California
Key people	Doug Shane President Burt Rutan Founder
Products	Air vehicle design, tooling, and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication and developmental flight test
Revenue	$20-30 million
Employees	over 200
Parent	Northrop Grumman
Website	scaled.com

Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled) is an aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman that is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States. Prior to acquisition by Northrop Grumman, the company was founded to develop experimental aircraft, but 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.

Company history

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.

SpaceShipOne

Main article: Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne

The company revealed 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, manned 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 68,000 feet (21,000 m) and 930 mph (Mach 1.2). The craft was brought 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 manned 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 unmanned launch vehicles in its 20 years, but never a license for manned 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.

Other famous vehicles

Before forming Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan designed several aircraft for amateur builders, including the famous VariEze, often considered one of general aviation's most innovative designs. He also designed the Beechcraft Starship, which was, however, a commercial failure. These aircraft were novel because of their canard configuration, winglets and pusher propellers.

Before SpaceShipOne, Rutan was best known for his Voyager aircraft, which his brother, Dick Rutan, and Jeana Yeager flew around the world without refueling in 1986. 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: 41,467.53 km (25,766.73 mi).

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 manufactured, the double slotted wing mast for the 1988 Stars & Stripes catamaran for Dennis Conner's entry of that year in the America's Cup yacht race.

Safety incidents

On July 26, 2007, an explosion occurred during testing of SpaceShipTwo's systems, killing three employees and injuring three more.

Aircraft projects

Rutan Aircraft Factory aircraft

Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ

• Model 27 VariViggen (1972)
• Model 31 VariEze (1975)
• Model 32 VariViggen SP (1973)
• Model 33 VariEze (1976)
• Model 35 AD-1 (1979)
• Model 40/74 Defiant (1978)
• Model 54 Quickie (1978)
• Model 61 Long-EZ (1979)
• Model 68 AMSOIL Racer (1981)
• Model 73 NGT: Three-fifths scale model of Fairchild T-46 trainer (1981)
• Model 72 Grizzly (1982)
• Model 76 Voyager: First aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth non-refueled, non-stop (1986)
• Model 77 Solitaire (1982)

Scaled Composites aircraft

Model 76 Voyager

Beechcraft 2000 Starship, based upon the Model 115

• Model 115 Starship: 85% scale prototype, went into production as the Beechcraft Model 2000 Starship (1982)
• B-2 Spirit: Scale model pole-mounted B-2 for radar cross section tests^{[citation needed]}
• Model 133 ATTT (1987) tandem-wing STOL transport
• Model 143 Triumph: Built for Beechcraft (1988)
• IAI Searcher: longer-winged version of Pioneer UAV (1988)^{[citation needed]}
• Model TRA324 Scarab: Developed for Teledyne Ryan, now Northrop Grumman (1988)
• DC-X: Constructed the structural aeroshell and control surfaces under contract to McDonnell Douglas
• Model 151 ARES (1990)
• Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket: Wings, fins for air launch rocket (1990)
• Model 158 Pond Racer: Built for air racer Bob Pond (1990)
• Bell Eagle Eye: Tilt-rotor demonstrator aircraft for Bell Helicopter (1993)
• Model 205, first preliminary design for airlaunch of a booster rocket heavier than 500,000 pounds (230,000 kg) (1991)
• Model 206, second preliminary design for heavy airlaunch (1991)
• Model 247 Vantage: Developed for VisionAire (1996)
• Model 271 V-Jet II: Developed for Williams International (1997)^{[citation needed]}
• Model 276 NASA X-38: fuselage of drop test vehicle (1998)
• Model 281 Proteus (1998)
• Roton ATV (1999)
• Model 287 NASA ERAST: R/C model for proof of concept of 85,000 ft (26,000 m) UAV
• Model 309 Adam M-309: Prototype for the Adam A500 (2000)
• Model 326 Northrop Grumman X-47A (2001)
• Model 302 Toyota TAA-1 (2002)
• Tier One (2003)
  • Model 316 SpaceShipOne
  • Model 318 White Knight
• Model 311 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer: Same mission as Voyager, except a solo flight using a jet engine (2004)
• Tier 1b (2008)
  • Model 339 SpaceShipTwo
  • Model 348 WhiteKnightTwo
• Stratolaunch carrier aircraft (Model 351), world's largest wingspan aircraft
• Model 367 BiPod (2011) A hybrid electric roadable aircraft.
• USAF Hunter-Killer project (2007?) in cooperation with Northrop Grumman
  • Model 395: Proposed unmanned version of Model 281, equipped with armament
  • Model 396: Smaller version of the RQ-4 Global Hawk, equipped with armament
• SpaceShipThree: The name of the proposed next iteration of Scaled Composites' manned spacecraft series.
• LauncherOne: The name of the proposed unmanned launcher vehicle based on the technology from the SpaceShip series of Scaled Composites. Uses might include micro-satellite orbital insertion.
• Stratolaunch Systems: Scaled Composites is to build carrier plane for a SpaceX-manufactured rocket to act as a first stage in launching payloads to space. Together, the rocket and carrier plane would be the largest aircraft ever built.

External Projects - Aircraft

• US flight based testing and evaluation of the GA8 Airvan manufactured by Gippsland Aeronautics of Victoria, Australia (2000?).
  • Flight evaluation of the external underneath cargo pod (2002?).

Non-aircraft work

• Stars & Stripes: The catamaran that formed Dennis Conner's American entry for the America's Cup yacht race (1988)
• Power Augmented Ram Landing Craft (PARLC): For the U.S. Navy.
• General Motors Ultralite (1992)

External links

• Scaled Composites website
• Stargazer - The Ultimate Online Resource on Every Known Rutan Project
• Aerofiles data on various Rutan/Scaled projects
• "Patents owned by Scaled Composites". US Patent & Trademark Office. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=0&p=1&f=S&l=50&Query=an%2F%22scaled+composites%22&d=ptxt. Retrieved December 6, 2005. 
• SpaceShipOne Motor Bulkhead Case Study