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43-578: VSS Enterprise ( tail number : N339SS ) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane , built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic . As of 2004, it was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin Galactic. It was also the first ship of the Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo class, based on upscaling the design of record-breaking SpaceShipOne . The VSS Enterprise ' s name

86-612: A 1995 album by Bill Laswell and Nicholas Bullen Subsonic 3: Skinner's Black Laboratories , a 1995 album by Andy Hawkins and Justin Broadrick Subsonic Music Festival , an annual electronic music festival in Monkerai, Australia See also [ edit ] Infrasound , sound at frequencies below the normal threshold of human hearing Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

129-624: A more rigorous application process for experimental spaceflight permits. Aircraft registration In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention), all civil aircraft must be registered with a civil aviation authority (CAA) using procedures set by each country. Every country, even those not party to the Chicago Convention, has an NAA whose functions include

172-561: A new allocation granted – in most cases this is from the new country's new ITU allocation, but neither is it uncommon for the new country to be allocated a subset of their former colonial power's allocation. For example, after partition in 1947, India retained the VT designation it had received as part of the British Empire's Vx series allocation, while Pakistan adopted the AP designation from

215-565: A number suffix rather than letters, like the United States (N), South Korea (HL), and Japan (JA), the prefix and suffix are connected without a dash. Aircraft flying privately usually use their registration as their radio callsign , but many aircraft flying in commercial operations (especially charter, cargo, and airlines) use the ICAO airline designator or a company callsign. Some countries will permit an aircraft that will not be flown into

258-412: A powered test flight over California's Mojave Desert. The flight began smoothly, with Enterprise being dropped from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier and igniting its engine at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15,000 m). About 60 to 90 seconds into the flight, an "anomaly" was reported that resulted in destruction of the ship. The pilot in command, Peter Siebold , escaped from the craft and parachuted to safety;

301-720: A single letter prefix. Smaller countries had to share a single letter prefix, but were allocated exclusive use of the first letter of the suffix. This was modified by agreement by the International Bureau at Berne and published on April 23, 1913. Although initial allocations were not specifically for aircraft but for any radio user, the International Air Navigation Convention held in Paris in 1919 ( Paris Convention of 1919 ) made allocations specifically for aircraft registrations, based on

344-452: A total of 6 hours and 21 minutes. A second, similar crewed flight of VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve was carried out on 30 September 2010, lasting approximately 5 hours. Among the objectives of these flights was the improvement of pilot proficiency, and the results of the flights were deemed to show that the systems were capable of supporting future glide missions. On 10 October 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first crewed gliding test flight. It

387-399: A type of bullet designed to avoid creating a loud shockwave when fired Subsonic flight , an aircraft flight at air speeds lower than the speed of sound in air Subsonic and transonic wind tunnels Music [ edit ] Subsonic (album) , a 2002 album by Vigleik Storaas Trio Subsonic (EP) , a 2013 EP by Younha Subsonic album series: Subsonic 2: Bass Terror ,

430-527: Is in operation. The registration identifier must be displayed prominently on the aircraft. Most countries also require the registration identifier to be imprinted on a permanent fireproof plate mounted on the fuselage in case of a post-fire/post-crash aircraft accident investigation . Most nations' military aircraft typically use tail codes and serial numbers. Military aircraft most often are not assigned civil registration codes. However, government-owned non-military civil aircraft (for example, aircraft of

473-569: The Mojave Desert under rocket power and descended using its tilt-wing "feathering" maneuver. Space journalist Doug Messier reported that "the engine plume featured white smoke, not the black smoke seen on the April flight." On 10 January 2014, the third powered flight climbed higher than the previous flights, testing a new coating on the tail boom and other systems. Sources: On 31 October 2014, Enterprise broke apart in flight during

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516-618: The Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , Hong Kong and Macau , both of which were returned to PRC control from Britain in 1997 and Portugal in 1999 respectively. Hong Kong's prefix of VR-H and Macau's of CS-M, both subdivisions of their colonial powers' allocations, were replaced by China's B- prefix without the registration mark being extended, leaving aircraft from both SARs with registration marks of only four characters, as opposed to

559-425: The 1913 callsign list. The agreement stipulated that the nationality marks were to be followed by a hyphen then a group of four letters that must include a vowel (and for the convention Y was considered to be a vowel). This system operated until the adoption of the revised system in 1928. The International Radiotelegraph Convention at Washington in 1927 revised the list of markings. These were adopted from 1928 and are

602-660: The Ryan NYP aircraft flown by Charles Lindbergh as the Spirit of St. Louis was registered in the experimental category. There is a unique overlap in the United States with aircraft having a single number followed by two letters and radio call signs issued by the Federal Communications Commission to Amateur Radio operators holding the Amateur Extra class license. For example, N4YZ is, on

645-618: The United Kingdom) either because of personal or political reasons, or because they fear spurious lawsuits and potential arrest of the aircraft. The first use of aircraft registrations was based on the radio callsigns allocated at the London International Radiotelegraphic Conference in 1913. The format was a single letter prefix followed by four other letters (like A-BCDE). The major nations operating aircraft at that time were allocated

688-475: The United States Department of Homeland Security) are assigned civil registrations. Although each aircraft registration identifier is unique, some countries allow it to be re-used when the aircraft has been sold, destroyed or retired. For example, N3794N is assigned to a Mooney M20F . It had been previously assigned to a Beechcraft Bonanza (specifically, the aircraft in which Buddy Holly

731-404: The aircraft to be registered in the carrier's home country (either because it does not have sufficient regulation governing civil aviation , or because it feels the courts in that country would not cooperate fully if it needed to enforce any security interest over the aircraft), and the carrier is reluctant to have the aircraft registered in the financier's jurisdiction (often the United States or

774-522: The airspace of another country to display the registration with the country prefix omitted - for example, gliders registered in Australia commonly display only the three-letter unique mark, without the "VH-" national prefix. Some countries also operate a separate registry system, or use a separate group of unique marks, for gliders, ultralights, and/or other less-common types of aircraft. For example, Germany and Switzerland both use lettered suffixes (in

817-617: The basis of the currently used registrations. The markings have been amended and added to over the years, and the allocations and standards have since 1947 been managed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Article 20 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago Convention), signed in 1944, requires that all aircraft engaged in international air navigation bears its appropriate nationality and registration marks. Upon

860-521: The combinations that could be used: An older aircraft (registered before 31 December 1948) may have a second letter in its identifier, identifying the category of aircraft. This additional letter is not actually part of the aircraft identification (e.g. NC12345 is the same registration as N12345). Aircraft category letters have not been included on any registration numbers issued since 1 January 1949, but they still appear on antique aircraft for authenticity purposes. The categories were: For example, N-X-211,

903-533: The completion of the necessary procedures, the aircraft receives its unique "registration", which must be displayed prominently on the aircraft. Annex 7 to the Chicago Convention describes the definitions, location, and measurement of nationality and registration marks. The aircraft registration is made up of a prefix selected from the country's callsign prefix allocated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) (making

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946-476: The copilot, Michael Alsbury , was killed in the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board conducted an independent investigation into the accident. In July 2015, the NTSB released a report that cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous federal oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the crash. The NTSB determined that

989-537: The crash resulted from the co-pilot's premature deployment of the feathering mechanism , which is normally used to aid a safe descent. The NTSB also faulted the ship's designers for failing to protect against human error, noting that the spacecraft lacked fail-safe systems that would have prevented or deterred a premature deployment of the feathering mechanism. The NTSB recommended that the FAA establish human factors guidance specific to commercial spaceflight operators and create

1032-499: The feathered reentry configuration was tested in flight on 4 May 2011, with weekly test flights continuing through the end of May. On 9 June 2011, SS2 failed to separate from White Knight Two during its 11th planned glide flight due to a technical problem. Testing resumed with five successful glide flights in June 2011. In July 2011, after 15 successful glide flights, flight testing of SS2 was halted for two months while planned revisions to

1075-683: The flight test program for SpaceShipTwo. The test program includes seven phases: On 22 March 2010, the SpaceShipTwo vehicle VSS Enterprise underwent a captive carry test flight, with the parent White Knight Two aircraft, VMS Eve , performing a short flight while carrying the Enterprise . A second test flight was made on 16 May 2010, reaching SS2's launch altitude (51,000 feet) and lasting nearly five hours, in order to facilitate "cold soak" testing of SS2's avionics and pressurization system. Thereafter, "a simulated spaceship descent/glide mission

1118-480: The form D-xxxx and HB-xxx respectively) for most forms of flight-craft but numbers (D-nnnn and HB-nnn) for unpowered gliders. Many other nations register gliders in subgroups beginning with the letter G, such as Norway with LN-Gxx and New Zealand with ZK-Gxx. In the United States , the registration number is commonly referred to as an "N" number, because all aircraft registered there have a number starting with

1161-419: The letter N. An alphanumeric system is used because of the large numbers of aircraft registered in the United States. An N-number begins with a run of one or more numeric digits, may end with one or two alphabetic letters, may only consist of one to five characters in total, and must start with a digit other than zero. In addition, N-numbers may not contain the letters I or O , due to their similarities with

1204-480: The newly allocated ITU callsigns APA-ASZ. When this happens it is usually the case that aircraft will be re-registered into the new series retaining as much of the suffix as is possible. For example, when in 1929 the British Dominions at the time established their own aircraft registers, marks were reallocated as follows: Two oddities created by this reallocation process are the current formats used by

1247-487: The norm of five. subsonic [REDACTED] Look up subsonic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Subsonic may refer to: Motion through a medium [ edit ] Any speed lower than the speed of sound within a sound-propagating medium Subsonic aircraft , a flying machine that flies at air speeds lower than the speed of sound Subsonic ammunition ,

1290-405: The numerals 1 and 0 . Each alphabetic letter in the suffix can have one of 24 discrete values, while each numeric digit can be one of 10, except the first, which can take on only one of nine values. This yields a total of 915,399 possible registration numbers in the namespace , though certain combinations are reserved either for government use or for other special purposes. The following are

1333-587: The one hand, a Cessna 206 registered to a private individual in Melba, Idaho , while, on the other hand, is also issued to an Amateur Radio operator in North Carolina. Since an aircraft registration number is also used as its call sign, this means that two unrelated radio stations can have the same call sign. The impact of decolonisation and independence on aircraft registration schemes has varied from place to place. Most countries, upon independence, have had

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1376-518: The registration a quick way of determining the country of origin) and the registration suffix. Depending on the country of registration, this suffix is a numeric or alphanumeric code, and consists of one to five characters. A supplement to Annex 7 provides an updated list of approved nationality and common marks used by various countries. While the Chicago convention sets out the country-specific prefixes used in registration marks, and makes provision for

1419-403: The registration of civil aircraft . An aircraft can only be registered once, in one jurisdiction, at a time. The NAA allocates a unique alphanumeric string to identify the aircraft, which also indicates the nationality (i.e., country of registration ) of the aircraft, and provides a legal document called a Certificate of Registration , one of the documents which must be carried when the aircraft

1462-531: The rocket motor, and SpaceShipTwo performed its first glide flight with the engine installed in December 2012. The spacecraft's first powered test flight took place on 29 April 2013, briefly driving SpaceShipTwo to a supersonic velocity. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly". On 5 September 2013, the second powered flight was made by the SpaceShipTwo. It broke the sound barrier, reached Mach 1.43, and climbed to 69,000 feet (21 km) over

1505-542: The spacecraft's design for lacking fail-safe mechanisms that could have deterred or prevented early deployment. Initial projections by Virgin Galactic in 2008 called for test flights to begin in late 2009 and commercial service to start in 2011. This schedule was not achieved, with captive carry and glide flight tests beginning in 2010, and the first test flight under rocket power in 2013. In October 2009, Virgin Galactic CEO Will Whitehorn outlined

1548-578: The spaceplane were made. Flight tests resumed in late September 2011, although the 16th glide flight – on 29 September – was marred by a brief loss of control aboard SS2, forcing the crew to utilise the feathered wing configuration to land safely. This test was followed by another hiatus, during which some of the spacecraft's engine components were installed. In June 2012, Scaled Composites received an FAA permit to conduct rocket-powered supersonic test flights. SpaceShipTwo flight tests resumed in June 2012. In September 2012, Virgin Galactic announced that

1591-452: The unpowered subsonic glide flight test program was essentially complete. The company thereafter stated its intention to fit the hybrid rocket motor and control system to the vehicle, before resuming the glide flight test program with the rocket motor installed, in order to recharacterize the spacecraft's glide performance with slightly different weight distribution and aerodynamics. In October 2012, Scaled Composites installed key components of

1634-430: The ways they are used in international civil aviation and displayed on aircraft, individual countries also make further provision for their formats and the use of registration marks for intranational flight. When painted on the aircraft's fuselage, the prefix and suffix are usually separated by a dash (for example, YR-BMA). When entered in a flight plan , the dash is omitted (for example, YRBMA). In some countries that use

1677-662: Was killed ). An individual aircraft may be assigned different registrations during its existence. This can be because the aircraft changes ownership, jurisdiction of registration, or in some cases for vanity reasons. Most often, aircraft are registered in the jurisdiction in which the carrier is resident or based, and may enjoy preferential rights or privileges as a flag carrier for international operations. Carriers in emerging markets may be required to register aircraft in an offshore jurisdiction where they are leased or purchased but financed by banks in major onshore financial centres. The financing institution may be reluctant to allow

1720-521: Was an acknowledgement of the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek television series. The spaceplane also shared its name with NASA's prototype Space Shuttle orbiter , as well as the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise . It was rolled out on 7 December 2009. SpaceShipTwo made its first powered flight in April 2013. Richard Branson said it "couldn't have gone more smoothly". Enterprise

1763-400: Was destroyed during a powered test flight on 31 October 2014, killing one pilot, Michael Alsbury , and seriously injuring another, Peter Siebold . This was the first spacecraft-related accident in which part, but not all, of the crew survived. An investigation revealed the accident was caused by premature deployment of the "feathering" system, the ship's descent device; the NTSB also faulted

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1806-437: Was made from [launch] altitude." Between these two flights, the SpaceShipTwo airframe was modified by the addition of two interior fins, with one fin being added to the inside (rocket-side) of each of the craft's twin vertical stabilizers . On 15 July 2010, VSS Enterprise made its first crewed flight. The craft remained attached to VMS Eve as planned, and underwent a series of combined vehicle systems tests. The flight lasted

1849-526: Was released from VMS Eve at 45,000 ft (13,700 metres) and glided to a safe landing at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. A second gliding test flight took place on 28 October 2010 and a third on 17 November 2010. As of December 2010, Scaled reported that the flight test program was exceeding expectations. The fourth test flight took place on 13 January 2011, while the fifth and sixth glide flights occurred on 22 and 27 April 2011, respectively. Following this,

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