When Burt Rutan rolled out his odd looking aircraft, the White Knight, many years ago on that Mohave, CA runway, the aviation press was alive with speculation over what its purpose was.  Rutan was known for innovative designs, and had been known to be up to something for several years in the mysteriously closed hanger.  What emerged on the runway was an ungainly odd looking aircraft.  Nobody guessed they were looking at the launch platform for the world's first private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne which rolled out much later.


Today Virgin Galactic in conjunction with Burt Rutan's design company Scaled Composites (now owned by Northrup-Grumman) rolled the much larger version of the White KnightTwo,  dubbed Eve, (after owner Sir Richard Branson's mother) onto the runway in Mohave, CA for preview. (PDF Press Release) It will carry a larger passenger version of SpaceShipOne (dubbed Adam?;-) so they get mated up in the Hanger of Eden) for the

 

Virgin Galactic, which is still under wraps (SpaceShipTwo) in that mysterious hanger.