Brian Binnie

William Brian Binnie ( born 1953 in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA ) is an American test pilot and astronaut suboritaler.

Brian was born in Indiana, but grew up in Scotland, where his father taught physics at the University of Aberdeen. As a teenager, he returned to the United States. In Lexington ( Massachusetts) he went to high school and then studied at Brown University in Rhode Iceland. In 1975, he received a bachelor's degree in aviation and space technology, and a year later a Masters in fluid physics. The Princeton University later awarded him an additional master's degree in aeronautical engineering.

After graduating, he joined the U.S. Navy for 20 years and was a test pilot for the F/A-18. In 1988 he graduated from the Test Pilot School of the Navy in Maryland. During the Second Gulf War, he flew 33 combat missions and is now retired from the U.S. Navy.

1999 Binnie was a test pilot for a prototype of atmospheric Roton spacecraft ( a combination of helicopter and rocket), which was developed by Rotary Rockets. After the roton program was canceled, he moved to Scaled Composites.

SpaceShipOne was developed by Scaled Composites. On 17 December 2003, the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers, Binnie contributed as one of four qualified pilot - next Binnie Michael Melvill, Peter Siebold and Douglas Shane - for the experimental rocket plane the first powered test flight, called 11P. He reached a speed of Mach 1.2 and an altitude of 20.7 kilometers.

On 4 October 2004 Binnie was the pilot of the second prize for winning the flight Ansari X Prize, which he, the 100 - kilometer mark clearly exceeded by 112 kilometers and is thus counted as an astronaut. He won the Ansari X Prize prize money in the amount of 10 million U.S. dollars for Scaled Composites.

For the testing of SpaceShipOne, he was awarded his colleagues Mike Melvill and Peter Siebold Iven C. Kincheloe 2004 with the award for outstanding performance during flight testing.

In April 2014 Binnie moved from Scaled Composites to competitors XCOR Aerospace.

Binnie and his wife (nicknamed " Bub " ), have two grown sons and daughter Jennifer.