The International Cessna^® 170 Association

rupertjl wrote:George,

..........with all aircraft design, if it looks weird or funny, it was done for some reason........

v/r,
Jud

Or was British, French, or Russian.

White Knight has more than one purpose -- as Karl pointed out, it's also a Spaceship trainer. Rutan designed the cockpit of the first White Knight identical to the Spaceship 1's cockpit, an idea he was particularly proud of (he said). They could also configure the airframe to glide at the same descent rate as Spaceship 1 (which is a glider as it returns to earth) so that the test pilots could practice landings. This worked so well that they designed the second White Knight to accommodate two Spaceship simulation cockpits.