So Pete Siebold got the first type rating for White Knight Two.

OK, what does that mean? It implies to me that it’s an airplane. But it’s not going to be certified as an aircraft by AVR. So what does it mean to have a type rating for it?

I had a (semi) heated discussion with Will Whitehorn about this subject at the ISDC, over beers. I asked him how he can take passengers for weightless training in WK2 if he’s not getting certified under Part 25 (or whatever). His claim (and I’m not doubting his claim) is that George Nield has confirmed to him that all flights of WK2, with or without SS2, will be regulated by AST, and not AVR, because it’s part of a suborbital system. Thus, if AST deems that the training is necessary for passenger safety, they will be allowed to provide it on WK2, even without carrying the spacecraft itself.

Now, I could see them getting the thing an airworthiness certificate (from AVR) and then flying people in the plane as an experimental aircraft, with permission from the local FSDO, using the flight training exemption, which is what we used to do for weightless flights in the T-39 back in the early nineties. What I still don’t understand, regardless of how vehemently Will insists on it, is how AST can regulate an airplane, not engaged in suborbital flight. “Suborbital” flights were carefully defined in the legislation a few years ago (“thrust exceeding lift for significant portion of flight”), and a WK2 flight sans SS2 (i.e., it is no longer part of a suborbital system) whose thrust never exceeds its lift except briefly during take off, simply does not satisfy the criterion.

As I told Will then, expect a turf battle to crop up within the FAA once they start to actually fly passengers in the thing. I could be wrong, but can’t see AVR letting AST get away with it, and I think they’ll have the law on their side.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Another thought. Will the vehicle have an N number on the tail? If so, who will issue it?

[Update a couple minutes later]

D’oh!

I misread the post. He got a type rating for SS2. That raises different questions. Is AST now in the business of providing type ratings? Because SS2 is clearly a suborbital vehicle, and within their purview.

And is Siebold “type rated” for WK2, or is merely the “pilot”? Which was the original question. And the tail number question remains, for both vehicles. At least for SS2, since “N” designates US, how about an “NS” number, to indicate that it’s a space vehicle and to allow AST to maintain its own data base that wouldn’t interfere with AVR’s?

[Update early evening]

Double d’oh! I read it right the first time, as Ed Wright points out.