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By Barbara A. Schmitz
July 25, 2006 - SpaceShipOne was a favorite of aviation enthusiasts at last year’s fly-in convention—they got to see the world’s first successful civilian-built spacecraft, winner of the $10 million Ansari X Prize up-close and watch it fly.
While the original is now hanging in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., its sibling, SpaceShipOne, S/N #2, is in the EAA AirVenture Museum and will be officially dedicated at 9 a.m. Tuesday. It’s likely to be a favorite, too.
"Since 1962, EAA has had a museum and we’ve grown to be one of the more wonderful aviation museums in the nation," said Adam Smith, museum director. But the SpaceShipOne exhibit will put the museum into new and uncharted territory.
"SpaceShipOne is meaningful to the whole museum," Smith said. "On Tuesday we will become an air and space museum, something we’ve never been before. And it’s all because an EAA member had a vision…."
Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, in Mojave, California, isn’t just any EAA member. Rutan has lived and breathed aviation since a boy. In fact, a model of a control-line "Wildcat" that Burt flew in the 1950s is also in the museum, as are six other of his designs—including the VariViggen, Rutan’s first plane, and a mock-up of the Voyager, which in 1986 became the first plane to circle the world without refueling.
The SpaceShipOne exhibit was a large and time-consuming project. Using the same molds and tools as the original, Scaled Composite volunteers—including Mike Melvill who first flew SpaceShipOne and became the world’s first civilian astronaut—built the parts of the spaceship, and then those parts were transported to Oshkosh to be assembled.
"Mike and Sally Melvill gave up their Christmas vacation to make the parts," Smith said. "This exhibit couldn’t have happened without the 25 volunteers from Scaled Composites."
Once the components were in Oshkosh, five museum craftsmen worked full-time from late January through June to complete the replica and make it as similar to the original as possible. Assisting them in their Herculean task were nearly 1,000 close-up photos taken of the original spacecraft when it was in Oshkosh.
"If a line of screws were put in crooked in the original, it’s crooked on ours," Smith said.
Scaled Composites employees signed their name on the rocket cowling before it launched; their names and their handwriting is replicated on the EAA version.
And if you look carefully inside SpaceShipOne’s windows, you’ll see red, blue, and yellow M&M’s "floating," just like they did in Melvill’s flight.
But the exhibit is more than just a static aircraft. Beginning Tuesday with the dedication, a large screen will descend and the lights will dim at 30 minutes past each hour as Melvill talks about the historic flight on a six-minute film.
Alan Westby, director of collections and interpretation, said the film went through nine or 10 revisions.
"I’ve watched it many times, but it still makes me laugh. I really think Mike Melvill’s personality shines through; he’s just so sincere."
On the film, Melvill talks about training for the flight, his nerves and what it feels like as you speed at Mach 2 and then Mach 3 toward space and see the blue sky turning black.
You watch Melvill throw some M&Ms around, and in weightlessness, stay put. As Melvill describes the key technological breakthrough conceived by Rutan, the replica moves and "feathers." The feathering process allowed SpaceShipOne to slow down and safely re-enter the atmosphere without excessive heating. Later, it "unfeathers," so Melvill can make a deadstick landing.
Watching the feathering process is definitely one of the highlights. Joyce Brown, of Deerfield, Wisconsin, said she couldn’t imagine the feathering process until she saw it. She and others who just happened to be in the museum saw a test run on Saturday.
Her daughter, Alisa, 6, was also impressed.
"I touched that plane last year," she said, referring to the actual SpaceShipOne that was on AeroShell Square in 2005. "I cried when it left."
On Saturday, Alisa spent some time staring through the windows, trying to find the M&Ms that were "floating." She announced each one found, including the colors—two reds and a blue.
Westby said the exhibit is like a marionette, with heavy cables controlling SpaceShipOne’s feathering. "I didn’t want to put mechanicals in it, knowing that would be difficult to repair while hanging from the ceiling," he said.
The SpaceShipOne exhibit is only the beginning of a whole space gallery. Engineer and EAA member Craig Willan donated the funding for the exhibits, which should be in place by AirVenture 2007.
"Phase 2 will be an interactive space gallery," Westby said. Located in the design area, it will take a look inside SpaceShipOne and more.
Smith said the SpaceShipOne exhibit gets back to the reason the museum exists. "The Wright brothers used ingenuity and changed the world when they invented aviation. One hundred years later, SpaceShipOne demonstrates that you are still able to change the world through aviation. You don’t have to be a big corporation to do it. That gets to the message of EAA—anyone with some ingenuity can do it. There may be a kid at the EAA Air Academy whose name we don’t know yet who will get to Mars before the government. And that’s exciting."
Westby said the exhibit really revitalizes a person’s dreams of going to space. "Space tourism is becoming a huge market. This shows that it is possible to get to space. And you don’t have to be a NASA astronaut to do it."
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