Scot at the helm of Branson space programme
A SCOTTISH pilot has been at the helm of SpaceShipTwo, Sir Richard Branson’s programme to send the first commercial flight into space, throughout its evolution.
David Mackay, chief pilot of Virgin Galactic, told The Scotsman in May how “everything is coming together” for the inaugural voyage of the firm’s SpaceShipTwo fleet.
Mr Mackay, 57, said he was entirely focused on completing the first flights of Branson’s space tourism initiative.
Describing the moment the craft’s rocket engines powered into life, he said there were a “few seconds of silence” followed by a period of “unrelenting” acceleration.
He said the major remaining milestone was to see how the ship behaved as it re-entered the atmosphere at supersonic speed.
Mr Mackay, who was born in Helmsdale, Sutherland, is a former test pilot who graduated in aeronautical engineering from the University of Glasgow.
Just three months ago, he was back in the city, collecting an honorary degree from the same university.
He was one of two pilots on a test flight in January over the Mojave desert in California. He was on board when the 60ftlong SpaceShipTwo was ferried by its companion aircraft to 46,000ft before being released.
Mr Mackay said that as a youngster he had an ambition to go into space and had assumed it would become a natural mode of transport and that Britain would have its own programme to rival Nasa.
“I thought by the time was in my 20s or early 30s, this was something that would be routine,” he said.
He joined the RAF in 1979 and flew Harriers before taking up a managerial position.
However, he returned to his first love of flying and joined Virgin Atlantic in 1995, piloting Boeing 747s and controlling the Airbus A340.
IThen in 2009 he signed up with Virgin’s space-flight programme and began his training.
In January, he helped SpaceShipTwo achieve record heights of 46,000ft.
He said afterwards: “I have watched SS2 evolve over the years into an incredible vehicle that is going to open up space to more people than ever before.
“To be behind the controls and fly it as the rocket ignited is something I will never forget. She flew brilliantly. All the tests went really well and generated vital data that will be used to further fine-tune our operations.”
Sir Richard Branson, in tribute to his pilot, wrote recently: “Dave will almost certainly be the man who flies my kids and me to space”.
No details of the pilots involved in last night’s accident have yet been released.