Scaled Composites White Knight
White Knight was Scaled Composites' reusable Model 318 twin-turbojet carrier aircraft and high-fidelity simulator for the Tier One program. It carried and air-launched SpaceShipOne above approximately 45,000 feet and later supported other captive-carry and drop-test work before retirement in 2014.
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Identity
- Aliases
- WhiteKnightScaled Model 318Tier One mothership
- Family Name
- White Knight
- Full Name
- Scaled Composites White Knight
- Roles
- researchexperimentaltechnology_demonstratorutility
- Status
- retired
- Type
- aircraft
Details
- Aircraft Specs
- Configuration
- fixed_wing
- Operating Modes
- land
- Takeoff Landing Capabilities
- conventional
- Description
- White Knight was Scaled Composites' reusable Model 318 twin-turbojet carrier aircraft and high-fidelity simulator for the Tier One program. It carried and air-launched SpaceShipOne above approximately 45,000 feet and later supported other captive-carry and drop-test work before retirement in 2014.
- First Flight Year
- 2,002
- Last Flight Year
- 2,014
- Manufacturer
- Operator
- Propulsion Configurations
- Entries
- Nested value
- Name
- Scaled Composites White Knight General Electric J85 installation
- Notes
- Scaled Composites identifies White Knight as powered by two General Electric J-85 turbojets; no finer J85 submodel is inferred for this family-level relationship.
Links
- Official Url
- https://scaled.com/portfolio/white-knight/
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 17, 2026 at 03:58:51 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 14, 2026 at 20:11:44 UTC
- Image
- Download
Other
- Search Name
- Scaled Composites White Knight WhiteKnight Scaled Model 318 Tier One mothership