posted 05-23-2015 07:21 PM               

Space Cover 318: XCOR EZ Rocket First Flight

The XCOR EZ-Rocket is XCOR's first demonstrator rocket-powered vehicle and is a test platform for the XCOR rocket propulsion system. The airplane is a modified Rutan Long-EZ, with the propeller replaced by a pair of pressure-fed liquid-fueled rocket engines and an under-slung rocket-fuel tank. The engines are restartable in flight.

EZ-Rocket which is registered as an experimental aircraft was built to show that XCOR can design and build a rocket propulsion vehicle that is simple, cost effective, reliable, and above all operable. They chose the Long-EZ as an airframe based on its pusher configuration and an excellent power-off glide capability. Since the engines are easily restartable, pilots, Dick Rutan and Rick Searfoss, have had the choice of extending the glide. Civilian astronaut Mike Melvill has also flown the EZ-Rocket, his first rocket vehicle experience.

EZ-Rocket was the first privately built and flown rocket-powered airplane, making its maiden flight on July 21, 2001, flown by test pilot Dick Rutan. On a typical flight, the EZ-Rocket takes off on rockets, gains altitude for a minute or so, then switches off the rockets and glides to a deadstick landing.

In December 2005, the EZ-Rocket's 25th flight set the world record for Distance without Landing for its class by flying 9.94 miles from Mojave to California City, CA in 10 minutes. The National Aeronautic Association (NAA) certified the EZ-Rocket as setting the long distance world record for any ground-launched Rocket-Powered Aircraft. EZ-Rocket pilot Dick Rutan exclaimed, "That was the shortest long-distance record flight ever!"

In recognition of his achievement, the FAI awarded Rutan the 2005 Louis Bleriot Medal. Also this flight performed the first official delivery of U.S. Mail by a rocket-powered aircraft, including the flown cover shown above. Mr. Rutan signed this cover in 2014 at a presentation he gave in Ft. Worth, Texas.

• October 8, 2000 - First firing of an XCOR Aerospace LOX-powered rocket engine.
  
• July 21, 2001 - First flight, flown by Dick Rutan (single-engine configuration).
  
• October 6, 2001 - First flight in twin-engine configuration.
  
• July 24, 2002 - First touch-and-go of a rocket-powered aircraft (world record).
  
• December 3, 2005 - Set the point-to-point distance record for a ground-launched, rocket-powered aircraft, flying 16 km from Mojave to California City in just under ten minutes.
  
• December 15, 2005 - First arrival of a rocket-powered aircraft at the Mojave Spaceport on a flight originating at another airport, return flight from California City, piloted by Rick Searfoss.
  
• October 25, 2007 – Became the first Rocket Plane to fly three times in one day since 1945.

At the end of 2001, Time Magazine named the EZ-Rocket as a "Transportation Invention of the Year."

Sources: XCOR Press Release and Wikipedia. Shown covers originally obtained by Terry Chamberlin and traded to Ray Cartier.

posted 05-24-2015 03:53 PM               

There were reportedly about 500 postal covers and cards flown on the Dec. 3, 2005 Mojave to California City flight, including Ray's above, and mine, here: