Yesterday on 20 May Scaled Composite’s WhiteKnight Two prototype Virgin Mothership Eve flew for the fifth time
Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn has told Hyperbola that the test lasted 3h and that: “Flight 5 has been a great success as it tested the full cabin pressurisation system and environmental control systems. Finally on landing there was an emergency landing drill test which all in all now paves the way for the next flights can start to push the envelope on altitude etc.”
Go through to the extended portion of the blog for the update
People in Mojave had contacted Hyperbola to say that a call to the air traffic control tower was made by WK2/Eve and that the emergency landing had been made due to smoke in the cockpit and other issues
I have spoken to the fire chief at Mojave air and spaceport and was unable to reach the director of operations at the airport but essentially the answer is that the emergency landing was definitley a drill and that it involved that call to the tower
Virgin Galactic’s Eve had no problem with its systems despite it being seen towed back from the runway by a tug yesterday
