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Green light for second suborbital plane

A California company Friday received the second federal license ever issued to fly a manned rocket on suborbital flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration granted XCor Aerospace Inc. the license for its Sphinx, a rocket-powered plane still on the drawing board.

The license covers up to 35 flights of the yet-to-be-built plane, which should test operation and propulsion concepts for an even later craft that could ferry paying passengers on suborbital flights, according to the FAA. The license is good through 2006.

Company chief executive officer Jeff Greason said the license would allow the company to attract investors to the $2.5 million to $3 million project. The concept plane could be flying within a year, he said.

The two-person, reusable rocket plane is not being designed to fly to space, nor is it intended to be a competitor for the X Prize, he added.

The $10 million, privately funded X Prize will go to the first private effort to launch a manned craft to an altitude of 63 miles -- generally considered the edge of space -- twice within two weeks. The craft must be able to carry three people.

The FAA granted the first suborbital rocket license earlier this month to another Mojave company, Scaled Composites. Scaled Composites is an X Prize competitor and has carried out at least two test flights of its SpaceShipOne.

XCor previously has flown a modified Long-EZ kit plane powered by twin rocket engines as part of its effort to develop a reusable rocket plane to fly to space.

Posted by thinkum at April 26, 2004 02:14 PM