Happy Birthday, Mr. Aeroplane

As previously noted, SpaceShipOne looks like something out of Dan Dare, and is trés cool. On 17 December, the centenary of powered flight, it fired its rocket motor in anger for the first time and promptly broke the sound barrier. We like SpaceShipOne. Incidentally, [Paul Allen][] (of Microsoft fame) is the man with the money. If I was Paul Allen, I'd invest in Dan Dare too. But I'd make 'em come to England and wear natty green uniforms. (And I'd make [Burt Rutan][] get a Sir Hubert moustache.) The only thing I'm unsure of is if Digby would fit into SpaceShipOne. I hope he would. [Paul Allen]:http://www.vulcan.com/ [Burt Rutan]:http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/NewIndex/photos/images/800/Bert%20and%20Paul800.jpg "A photo of Burt Rutan, Scaled Composite's owner/operator with Paul Allen. Burt's the one with the buccaneer sideburns." [reminded by [bitworking](http://bitworking.org/)]

• 23.12.2003, 9.22
• File under: space travel, Manned space flight, rocketships, SpaceShip One