History
Catbird set two world records which as of May 2012 still stand. The first was in Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) class C-1b (land planes with takeoff weight of between 500 and 1000 kg) speed over a closed circuit of 2 000 km 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) without payload. For this record, set at Mojave piloted by Dick Rutan, a speed of 401.46 km/h (249.46 mph) was achieved. The second record was set in class C-1c (aircraft between 1000 and 1750 kg takeoff weight), over the same course but piloted by Mike Melvill, at a speed of 413.78 km/h (257.11 mph).
The aircraft was stored inverted from the ceiling of Scaled Composites' Mojave hangar until April 2011. The aircraft was restored to flying condition by Zach Reeder, Jim Reed and Mike Melvill. Catbird's second first flight was July 7, 2011.
Read more about this topic: Scaled Composites Catbird
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“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
—Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)