WhiteKnight/SpaceShipOne: Oshkosh 2005

Went to the largest Airshow in the world (AirVenture) and was able to get some really nice shots of WhiteKnight, and SpaceShipOne. Some shots you may have never seen before. The only public veiwing of both planes before SpaceShipOne went to 'some' museum in Washington DC and the White Knight started working with NASA on the X-37. Here they are for you to enjoy:

Fly-By 1
Fly-by two
Front shot
Both Cockpits
White Knight's Cockpit
Cockpit #2
White Knight Markings
SpaceShipOne Cockpit
SpaceShipOne nose
Signed Engine of SpaceShipOne
Who's this guy signing autographs and answering dumb questions?
The first commercial Astronaut, Mike Melvill

[edit on 8/2/2005 by Jehosephat]

Awesome pictures! It all must have been exciting to see in person!

Yea, once in a lifttime thing I can tell my Grandkids... whenever that happens. I walked onto aeroshell square to take pics of the plane, and was suprised to see Mike Melvill and his wife there signing autographs on Satuday. Got to talk to her for a bit about Space M&Ms

Tho I really like being able to see the markings on white knight that show the progression of flights to winning the X-prize, as well as the crash of SpaceshipONe

did you take all those shots?

If so...Why are nearly all the resolutions of the pictures different sizes?

oh, and picture number 5 & 6 are the same.

Awesome shots, man, must've been exhilirating to be there. Those markings were very well done. What else did you see?

I did some reformating, resizing.

What else did I see? More like what I DIDN'T see. WEnt inside 2 B-17Gs, a B-25 Mitchel, and a PV-2D Harpoon Bomber. Was able to tocuh (if I wanted to) a F-15, F-16, F-18 (mock up) A-10s, a Black Hawk helecopter, Do-24 Seaplane, Dc-3s, Corsairs, Spitfire, Bearcat, Skyraiders, at least 12 Mustangs including an XP-51, P-40, P-47, P-80, Mig-15, Mig-21, F-86, A P-38 (Glacial Girl), GlobalFlyer, T-34s up the wazoo, L-39s...

do I need to go on? I havn't even TOUCHED the civilian craft that were there. Suffice it to say that during the airshow it becomes the busiest airport in the world (beats O'hare/Chicago numbers of operations, and it only operates during the daylight), and there are more planes on the ground there, then are REGISTERED in Europe.

When I get time I will make a thead in the Aircraft forum with some of my other pics that don't include spaceships, including some really nice shots of the B-17s

[edit on 8/3/2005 by Jehosephat]