Interest Point 7 - Design, Build and Test

Leave the administration building southbound on Airport Blvd. making a right turn at the stop sign on to Sabovich St. As you drive west on Sabovich St. take note of BAE systems on the right and Masten Space Systems on the left just after the UPS building. Continue on Sabovich St until a sign for Scaled Composites guides you to turn right. At the stop sign, the buildings around you are used by Scaled Composites.

 

Founded in 1982 by Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites has broad experience in air vehicle design, tooling and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and space vehicles. Now owned by Northrop Grumman, Scaled continues to operate its legacy aircraft and design and produce new aircraft.

What’s unique about Scaled Composites is that they that perform all steps involved in developing something new. Scaled designs, builds and tests concepts to prove an idea by which they were able to mark a lot of new milestones in aerospace history. One of the actively operated aircraft by Northrop on MASP is Scaled’s Model 281 Proteus. Proteus is a tandem-wing high-altitude long endurance aircraft. As it is able to carry various payloads and is now functioning as a multi-mission vehicle. The aircraft is able to orbit for more than 18 hours at altitudes over 60,000 ft and holds multiple altitude records.

 

Masten Space Systems builds vehicles which take off and land vertically using rocket propulsion and control. Founded in 2004, Masten Space Systems has been committed to rapid reusability for over a decade. This demonstrated reusability enables them to reliably and safely test new technologies aboard their rocket-powered landers. Masten has been selected to deliver nine NASA-scientific instruments to the lunar surface in 2022. Masten will also provide its customers with end-to-end commercial payload surfaces between the Earth and lunar surface. This includes operations associated with the launch vehicle, launch site, spacecraft, lander mission design and analysis, ground systems, payload integration, planning and support and post landing payload operations.

 

BAE Systems is a multinational aerospace and defense company. This is also the company which converted retired Phantom F-4s into unmanned QF-4s. One of these aircraft was found outside as a gate guardian (Interest Point 1).