Burt Rutan formed Scaled Composites in Los Angeles in 1982. Since that time, his company has designed and flown revolutionary aircraft ranging from the Globalflyer to the X Prize winning SpaceShipOne. Rutan has now sold the company to Northrop Grumman Corp. Northrop previously held a 40% interest in the company. This is the third time Rutan has sold Scaled Composites, having repurchased the company twice before.
Northrop and Scaled Composites have worked together on a number of projects including the military B-2 Stealth Bomber and UAV projects. No change is expected in management. Rutan is an engineering genius, so it doesn't take a genius to see that its good business to leave him in charge!
Scaled Composites, LLC operates from it's facilities in Mojave, California.
WASHINGTON - Northrop Grumman Corp.
agreed July 5 to increase its stake in Scaled Composites - the builder of the
Ansari X-Prize Cup-winning SpaceShipOne and a host of record-breaking aircraft - from 40
percent to 100 percent, Northrop Grumman spokesman Dan McClain confirmed July
20.
McClain,
who declined to disclose the value of the deal, said the company expects it to
close in August pending regulatory approval by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Scaled
Composites currently is working with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic
venture on a vehicle designated for now as SpaceShipTwo, which would carry two
pilots and six paying passengers into suborbital space for a few minutes of
weightlessness. The company also is building a new carrier aircraft, dubbed WhiteKnight2,
that will carry SpaceShipTwo to an altitude of 15 kilometers before releasing
it to soar to suborbital space.
The two
companies last year formed a joint venture called the Spaceship Company to
build the new vehicles.
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