PASSING GRADE EZ-ROCKET COMPLETES FIRST ROUND OF TESTS.Byline: Daily News MOJAVE - Xcor Aerospace XCOR Aerospace is a private rocket engine and spaceflight development company based at the Mojave Spaceport in Mojave, California. XCOR was formed by former members of the Rotary Rocket rocket engine development team in September, 1999. XCOR is headed by Jeff Greason. said it completed the first phase of its flight test program for the EZ-Rocket, which it calls the first privately built rocket-powered airplane. Made from a Rutan Long-EZ The Rutan Model 61 Long-EZ is a homebuilt aircraft with a canard layout designed by Burt Rutan's Rutan Aircraft Factory. It is derived from the VariEze, which was first offered to homebuilders in 1976. The prototype (N79RA) of the Long-EZ first flew on June 12, 1979. aircraft fitted with twin 400-pound thrust rocket engines, the EZ-Rocket took off Wednesday from the Mojave Airport and flew to an altitude of 6,200 feet before gliding back to Earth. ``I ignited one engine and the crew said everything looked good, so I lit the second engine and we started moving,'' said Xcor test pilot Dick Rutan Richard Glenn “Dick” Rutan (born July 1, 1938) is an aviator who piloted the Voyager aircraft around the world non-stop with the assistance of Jeana Yeager. He was born in Loma Linda, California, where he gained an interest in flight at a young age. , a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who flew the Voyager aircraft around the world unrefueled in 1986. The flight test program passed its first milestone by flying with both engines for an engine run time of 96 seconds and total flight time of five minutes and 20 seconds, Xcor Aerospace said. The plane made its first flight in July. On the Wednesday flight, Rutan said the plane took off 1,200 feet down the runway and rapidly accelerated to more than 180 mph as pilot Mike Melvill Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill (born November 1941) is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first flew overhead in another Long-EZ as chase plane. ``Once we started running out of liquid oxygen I shut down both engines. Mike inspected the airplane visually and reported it was clean with no leaks. We entered a standard flameout flame·out n. 1. Failure of a jet aircraft engine, especially in flight, caused by the extinction of the flame in the combustion chamber. 2. One that fails suddenly, especially after having been successful. (landing) pattern and glided back to the runway,'' Rutan said. The EZ-Rocket is a research and development test bed for Xcor, which designed and built its engines. ``Routine operations must be the primary criterion for rocket engine development,'' said Xcor Chief Engineer Dan DeLong. ``Our approach is to build safe and reliable rocket engines first, then progress to the higher performance needed for orbital launch vehicles This is a list of space launch vehicles sorted by country/operator in alphabetical order, commercial vehicles are listed under their corresponding country.
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Xcor President Jeff Greason Jeff Greason is a founder of XCOR Aerospace, the Personal Spaceflight Federation, was the team lead at Rotary Rocket for engine development, and previously worked at Intel. called the flight a significant technical achievement. ``First, once you get two engines working in combination it is significantly easier to cluster more engines for larger vehicles. Second, we were able to keep the engine and fuel flow running smoothly during the flight,'' Greason said. The official rollout and flight demonstration of the EZ-Rocket is expected to take place next month at Mojave Airport. The EZ-Rocket is a modified Long-EZ home-built aircraft, a type designed by Dick Rutan's brother, Burt. The aircraft is powered by twin 400-pound thrust regeneratively cooled rocket engines and fueled by isopropyl alcohol isopropyl alcohol: see isopropanol. and liquid oxygen. The modifications were performed at Xcor Aerospace's Mojave shop. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) The EZ-Rocket is called the first privately built rocket-powered plane, which is fitted with twin 400-pound thrust engines. (2 -- color) Xcor test pilot Dick Rutan flew the EZ-Rocket on its test flight Wednesday. That flight completed the first round of tests for the rocket. |
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