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35-588: VSS Unity ( Virgin Space Ship Unity , registration : N202VG ), previously referred to as VSS Voyager , is a retired SpaceShipTwo -class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane . It was the second SpaceShipTwo to be built and was part of the Virgin Galactic fleet. It first reached space as defined by the United States (above 50 miles or 80.5 km) on 13 December 2018, on

70-490: A captive-carry flight. On 1 November 2016, Virgin Galactic conducted another captive-carry flight of Unity but cancelled the glide portion of the flight because of wind speed. On 3 November and 30 November, additional captive-carry flights took place. In July 2017, Richard Branson suggested that the craft was to begin powered tests at three-week intervals. In September 2017, CEO George Whitesides suggested that engine testing

105-497: 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 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

140-561: 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

175-502: 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

210-720: 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

245-618: 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

280-710: The VP-03 mission. Unity was able to reach space as defined by the U.S. Air Force, NASA , and the FAA , by going over 50 miles (80.5 km) above sea level. However, it was unable to go above the Kármán line , the FAI 's defined space boundary of 100 km (62.1 miles). VSS Unity was rolled out on 19 February 2016 and completed ground-based system integration testing in September 2016, prior to its first flight on 8 September 2016. Unity

315-425: 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

350-660: 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

385-618: 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

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420-475: 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

455-404: 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

490-672: The aircraft, and provides a legal document called a Certificate of Registration , one of the documents which must be carried when the aircraft 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

525-522: 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

560-617: 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

595-610: The build of Unity was about 90 percent structurally complete, and 65 percent complete overall. As of April 2015, ground tests of Unity were projected to be able to begin as early as late 2015, after being projected as early as mid-2015 as of November 2014. On 21 May 2015, Unity reached the milestone of bearing the weight of the airframe on its own wheels. The spaceship was unveiled on 19 February 2016, as Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson had projected in November 2015; ground and flight testing commenced thereafter. VSS Unity

630-521: 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,

665-604: The commercial cabin and in July 2020, Virgin Galactic first publicly showed the interior of the spacecraft. Unity then continued the test flight program in the years 2020-2023. A notable flight occurred in 2021 when Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson flew aboard Unity to space. The final test flight (defined as final flight with only Virgin Galactic personnel onboard) was Virgin Galactic Unity 25 mission on 25 May 2023. The first operational flight of Unity (defined as

700-533: 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

735-476: The design's responses under numerous conditions. For each flight test, the White Knight Two aircraft carried Unity to altitude. Testing began with captive carry flights, in which Unity was not released from its carrier aircraft. Testing then progressed to free-flight glide testing, and continued with powered test flights. On 8 September 2016, Virgin Galactic commenced flight testing of Unity with

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770-923: The first suborbital spaceflight of VSS Unity was successfully completed on 13 December 2018, surpassing the 50 miles (80 km) altitude considered the boundary of outer space by NASA and the United States Air Force. Following its February 2019 flight to space, VSS Unity began to undergo modifications including installation of the commercial cabin, and changes to cockpit displays. Upon completion of these modifications, VSS Unity along with its carrier craft, VMS Eve , were moved to Spaceport America in New Mexico in February 2020. After completing two additional glide tests in New Mexico in May and June 2020, VSS Unity underwent final modifications to

805-553: The first flight flying passengers that were not Virgin Galactic employees) was Galactic 01 on 29 June 2023. The flights of VSS Unity ended mid-2024 to focus the effort on the next generation Delta-class vehicles, expected for 2025–26. Aircraft registration In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation (also known as the Chicago Convention), all civil aircraft must be registered with

840-480: 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

875-419: 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

910-480: 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

945-405: 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

980-587: 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

1015-518: 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

1050-430: 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

1085-662: 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

VSS Unity - Misplaced Pages Continue

1120-456: Was complete, and that only a "small number of glide flights" remained before VSS Unity would begin powered test flights. The first powered flight test took place on 5 April 2018 when a 30-second rocket firing accelerated Unity to a speed of Mach 1.87 and an altitude of 84,271 ft (25,686 m). The first powered test flight of Unity exceeded the altitude of all powered test flights of its predecessor, Enterprise . VSS Unity VP-03 ,

1155-458: Was retired on 8 June 2024 after its final flight took place on that date, as Virgin Galactic shifted its focus to the next generation Delta-class vehicles. VSS Unity , the second SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane for Virgin Galactic , was the first SpaceShipTwo built by The Spaceship Company . The ship's name was announced on 19 February 2016. Prior to the naming announcement, the craft was referred to as SpaceShipTwo, Serial Number Two . There

1190-428: Was speculation in 2004 that Serial Number Two would be named VSS Voyager , an unofficial name that was repeatedly used in media coverage. The name Unity was chosen by British physicist Stephen Hawking . Hawking's eye was also used as the model for the eye logo on the side of Unity . The manufacture of Unity began in 2012. The spacecraft's registration, N202VG, was filed in September 2014. As of early November 2014,

1225-471: Was the second SpaceShipTwo to be completed; the first, VSS Enterprise , was destroyed in a crash in late October 2014. After rollout and unveiling, a phase of testing called " Integrated Vehicle Ground Testing " began on VSS Unity in February 2016. VSS Unity underwent a test regimen similar to VSS Enterprise and then embarked on testing beyond what Enterprise experienced. The test flights were expected to be fewer, as Enterprise had already tested

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