Dan Linehan, author of a new non-fiction book SpaceShipOne: An Illustrated History, will speak and sign books at the Museum of Aviation on Friday, December 19.
The photo, video and animation presentation will be held at noon in the Museum's Art Gallery. 
Tickets are $10.00 which includes a boxed lunch. 
Reservations must be made by calling the Museum at (478) 926-6870 or emailing museumevents@museumofaviation.org.

SpaceShipOne (SSI) was the first privately funded manned aircraft to be flown into space.  Developed in secrecy, SSI reached space three times, flying a trajectory similar to the first two Mercury missions.  Its first unmanned flight from the Mojave Spaceport in California was on May 20, 2003 and after 15 test flights in 2003 and 2004 astronaut Brian Binnie reached an altitude of 112 kilometers (over 69 miles high) on October 4, 2004.  Innovative designs, like the feather mechanism used for reentry, and the use of a hybrid rocket engine were the keys to its success.  It was retired in 2005 and now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.  Because of it historical significance, it hangs between the Spirit of St. Louis, the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927 and the Bell X-1, which Chuck Yeager flew to first break the sound barrier in 1947.