Is this the most unusual use for the Boeing 747 yet? Robin Evans speaks to Virgin Orbit chief test pilot and seasoned jumbo jockey Kelly Latimer about using the Queen of the Skies to get to space
It is January 17, 2021. A Boeing 747-400 with a strangely familiar livery crosses the Pacific coast north of Los Angeles. Aboard are a special crew and a single VIP, but this was no president. Instead, the aircraft pulls off an unusual trick. Pitching to an angle no airliner would normally achieve, Cosmic Girl makes the first successful air launch of an orbital class, liquid-fuelled rocket.
In command was Virgin Orbit chief test pilot Kelly Latimer: “When it first drops, we hear the thud of the hooks opening and feel the aircraft roll to the right. We can hear the engine ignite and watch the first minute of the rocket’s flight.”
Mindful of an issue with a fuelling line on the debut launch the previous year, the mood at headquarters became lively. Virgin Orbit tweeted: “Everyone on the team who is not in mission control right now is going absolutely bonkers.” The pay-off for Kelly and her crew came as they returned to Mojave: “The biggest one for us was second stage separated, second stage lit and then we hear…
