RUTAN'S CRAFT SUPERSONIC SPACESHIPONE HITS MILESTONE IN TEST FLIGHT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

MOJAVE - A privately-funded spacecraft built by famed designer Burt Rutan reached a major milestone Wednesday with its first supersonic flight.

The blue-and-white-winged craft called SpaceShipOne reached a top speed of Mach 1.2, about 930 mph, after being released from a carrier aircraft in its first test flight powered by its specially built rocket engine.

``Our flight this morning by SpaceShipOne demonstrated that supersonic flight is now the domain of a small company doing privately funded research, without government help,'' Rutan's Scaled Composites said in a statement announcing the flight. ``The flight also represents an important milestone in our efforts to demonstrate that truly low-cost space access is feasible.''

SpaceShipOne sustained what Scaled called minor damage at the end of the flight when its left landing gear retracted at touchdown at Mojave Airport, causing the aircraft to veer to the left and leave the runway, the company said.

There were no injuries and the aircraft's damage can be easily repaired, the company said.

SpaceShipOne is a three-person craft being developed to fly more than 62 miles above Earth - 12 miles above where space begins. The 25-foot-long SpaceShipOne is carried aloft by a twin-engine jet called the White Knight, then let go to ignite its rocket engine.

To reach space, SpaceShipOne is to fly nearly straight up at a speed of about 2,400 mph, more than three times the speed of sound.

The craft is one of the contenders for the X Prize - a $20 million prize offered by a St. Louis-based foundation to the builder of the first privately developed spaceship to carry three people to 62.5 miles up, then do it again within two weeks.

SpaceShipOne was built in secret and financed without government help at an undisclosed price by Rutan, whose most famous aircraft was the Voyager, which circled the globe in 1986 on one tank of gas. Rutan unveiled SpaceShipOne in April at Scaled's Mojave plant.

During Wednesday's flight, SpaceShipOne was carried to an altitude of 48,000 feet over the California City area by the White Knight, which was piloted by Peter Siebold. At 8:15 a.m., flight test engineer Cory Bird pulled a handle to release SpaceShipOne.

SpaceShipOne test pilot Brian Binnie steered the aircraft upward and fired its rocket motor. Nine second later, SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier, the company said.

At motor shutdown, 15 seconds after ignition, SpaceShipOne was climbing at a 60-degree angle and flying near 1.2 Mach (930 mph). It reached an altitude of 68,000 feet, the company said.

The craft glided back to the Mojave Airport after shifting to its unconventional re-entry technique of ``feathering:'' its twin tail booms pivot upward, acting as a giant speed brake.

After a minute in the feathered configuration, Binnie changed the ship back to its conventional shape for the 12-minute glide to the airport, Scaled said.

The flight was the eighth for SpaceShipOne and was the first powered flight. In earlier flights the craft has glided back to Mojave Airport. SpaceShipOne began its flight tests in August.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) SpaceShipOne breaks the sound barrier Wednesday high over California City.

Scaled Composites

(2 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Aircraft designer Burt Rutan's rocket plane SpaceShipOne was built by Scaled Composites LLC in Mojave.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer