LONGUEUIL, Que. - When the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft takes flight, it will be with the help of some Canadian technology.
British billionaire Richard Branson announced Wednesday that Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp.'s PW308 turbofan engine has been chosen to power White Knight II - the carrier aircraft from which the manned space ship will be launched.
"With P&WC's excellent reputation and our mutual desire for innovation, it became clear that its PW308 engine is the best and most reliable solution available today to help make our aerospace adventure a true success," said Branson, the entrepreneur behind the Virgin Group of companies.
Branson's Virgin Galactic has teamed up with Scaled Composites LLC on this space tourism project, called The Spaceship Company.
"We are excited to be a part of this visionary commercial spaceship program that will open up new opportunities for people to fly into space," said Alain Bellemare, president of Longueuil, Que.-based P&WC.
The White Knight II will take off like an airplane with the SpaceShipTwo attached to its belly. The spaceship will be sent into suborbital space at a height of more than 15,000 metres.
"We have been impressed with P&WC's enthusiasm for this groundbreaking project," said Burt Rutan, co-founder CEO of Scaled Composites LLC, the aviation designer who created the space ship's predecessor, SpaceShipOne.
"The PW308 is a great engine for our new launch aircraft."
The first private flights are slated for next year.
Flights cost US$200,000 and so far The Spaceship Company has received US$25 million in deposits from more than 80,000 people in 120 different countries.
PC&W is working with the Space Ship Company and Branson's green energy project Virgin Fuels to look into using advanced biofuels in White Knight II. The green fuels could cut the flight's carbon footprint by up to half, the company said.
PC&W is owned by Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies. It designs, manufactures and services a variety of aircraft engines.
Virgin Galactic, founded in 2005, owns and operates privately built spaceships, modelled on Rutan's designs. Branson's company bought the intellectual property rights to the technology from Rutan and entrepreneur Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures.
