X-Prize
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I've been interested in glimpses of the chase plane used by Scaled Composites. It's delta-wing looking craft that can be seen in fuzzy CNN photos like this one:
But what is it? I did a little Googling to find out.
Turns out it is a Burt Rutan-designed Beech Starship from the 1980s. It was not successful and less than 100 were built. Raytheon decommisioned the Starships last year because they were too expensive to maintain and offered owners a King Air in exchange, but pilot Robert Scherer didn't want to give his up, so he uses it as the SpaceShipOne chase plane. He's got a website with photos of the plane.
Richard Seaman has some good photos of the Starship from the June SpaceShipOne launch.
StarShip chases White Knight and SpaceShipOne as they climb for launch.
SpaceShipOne glides in for a landing, followed by the StarShip.
StarShip does a victory pass.