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Hyperbola has heard from Mojave sources that Virgin Galactic’s Scaled Composites built WhiteKnightTwo has flown again today, confirming this Personal Spaceflight blog report. More details will be posted as soon as we get them
A crash yesterday delayed the second flight that was to have taken place then
UPDATE: Find more details about the second flight in the extended portion of this blog post
WK2 did one taxi run, then took off from Mojave airprot’s runway 30, accompanied by the Beech Starship chase plane
The aircraft did a low pass, and then a touch-and-go before finally touching down on runway 12, opposite of the take-off direction
Witnesses tell Hyperbola that while taxiing back to the apron after its second flight WK2’s pilots were either playing with the steering or the strong cross winds that had whipped up during the flight were giving the pilots problems in keeping the aircraft straight
Hyperbola will soon have details of changes made to WK2 to improve its handling as well
UPDATED 1955h GMT: In response to an email asking Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn for test flight details , he says: “Just had an email from Burt [Rutan], it was a flawless 1.5h flight but have not got an altitude yet.”
