The Proteus is a unique aircraft designed as a high-altitude, long-duration telecommunications relay platform, with potential for use on atmospheric sampling and Earth monitoring science missions as well.
It was designed by Burt Rutan, president of Scaled Composites, and built during 1997-98 at the firm’s development facility in Mojave, CA. Normally flown by two pilots in a pressurized cabin, the Proteus also has potential to perform its missions semi-autonomously.
X-29 technology demonstrator aircraft as it lifts off from the runway at Edwards Air Force base on a 1989 test flight.
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA rests in NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center hangars in Palmdale, California.
Test pilots Bruce Peterson, Milt Thompson, Don Mallick and Chuck Yeager in the cockpit of the M2-F1.
X-15A-2 with full scale ablative and external tanks installed parked in front of hangar.