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SpaceShipOne beneath White Knight.
Photo credit: Scaled Composites

Carried beneath White Knight to 50,000 ft., SpaceShipOne was released to fly under its own power to the 100 km. target height. For re-entry, the spacecraft's entire tailplane tilted upward in a high-drag 'feather' configuration. As it approached the ground, the tail returned to its normal flying position, and the vehicle glided to a runway landing. The first glide flight of SpaceShipOne occurred on August 7, 2003, and the first rocket-powered flight test took place on December 17, achieving a speed of Mach 1.2.

On 21 June 2004, pilot Mike Melvill took SpaceShipOne beyond 100 km. altitude and returned safely to earth. While this flight did not qualify toward the X-Prize, it represented an important achievement as the first manned spaceflight by a privately-funded vehicle.

On 29 September and 4 October 2004 SpaceShipOne, piloted by Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie respectively, completed the two required flights and won the X-Prize. Though no passengers were aboard, ballast equivalent to the weight of two people was added to meet the requirements of the competition. A year later, on 5 October 2005, SpaceShipOne was unveiled at the National Air and Space Museum's “Milestones of Flight” gallery, alongside such famous aircraft as the Bell X-1 and the Spirit of St.Louis.

SpaceShipOne in illustrious company.
Photo credit: Eric Long, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
 

This model builds into a detailed 1:48 scale replica of SpaceShipOne. Two versions are now available representing the vehicle as it appeared in December 2003 (the time of its first powered flight) and October 2004 (when it won the X-Prize). The completed model is approximately 7 inches long. You will need a colour printer capable of handling card or cover stock to print the parts sheets. 67 lb cover stock (approx 8.5 thousandths of an inch or 0.2 mm thick) is recommended.

Click here to see photos of the finished model.

Note to webmasters!  If you want to offer this kit on your site, please read this first.
 

If files are unavailable or slow to download, try at a different time of day, when the file servers may be less busy.

Primary site: Follow this link to download the instruction and parts files.
Go to the download page

Secondary site: Not currently available.

Display stand:
Sean Huxter has designed an attractive stand to display the model with wheels up (or down). The model features two optional display angles. Go to the model files page to download this kit.

Instructions in Magyar - Hungarian designer Laszlo Vadasz has kindly translated the instructions into Magyar.
 

White Knight model - German designer Jan Müller has designed a beautiful model of the White Knight carrier plane in 1:48 scale. This is available in PDF format (see the Download section) free of charge, though voluntary donations are encouraged.

Online review of this model - Don Bowers has written an informative review, including photos during construction, at the Starship Modeler site.

SpaceShipOne Wins $10 Million Ansari X Prize - Story and photos of the October 4 flight from space.com.

Tier One program - From the Scaled Composites site, a wealth of information and photos of the White Knight and SpaceShipOne vehicles.

SpaceShipOne videos - From the Scaled Composites site, video footage of SpaceShipOne's space flights.

Flying in Space for Low Cost - An excellent article on the Tier One program from Aviation Week.

X-Prize - The official site of the X-Prize organization, with information about all the participating teams.

Virgin Galactic - Richard Branson's Virgin Group will use SpaceShipOne technology to develop space tourism.