But when he manages to get away, he's part of a world championship air-racing team, traveling to such exotic locales as Abu Dhabi and Barcelona.

Not bad for a kid from Salina who grew up playing with paper airplanes, building model aircraft and helping his dad build a real one.

Reed was a senior majoring in aviation maintenance at K-State at Salina when GlobalFlyer arrived, and he was one of a dozen students who worked on the various record-setting missions.

Working on GlobalFlyer, Reed was determined to get a job at Mojave, Calif.- based Scaled Composites, which designed and built the unique aircraft and was already developing the world's first manned commercial spacecraft.

"The guys that came with the airplane to Salina, John Karkow and Philip Grassa, they were instrumental in me finding employment here," Reed said. "After the last GlobalFlyer flight, we put it in the Smithsonian -- that was in May (2006) and I was out here in September."

In Mojave

Until a few months ago, Reed was working on SpaceShipTwo and its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, which are being built for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceline.

SpaceShipTwo is built to carry six passengers and a two-person flight crew into orbit; within a year or two, Virgin expects to be taking tourists into space on a regular basis, at a ticket price of $200,000. The mothership, a twin-fuselage jet aircraft, is designed to carry SpaceShipTwo to about 50,000 feet, where the two craft will separate, and the spaceship will continue on into space.

WhiteKnightTwo is the largest aircraft ever built from composite material.

Reed was working on assembling the composite parts on both craft until a few months ago; he's not allowed to say what project he's assigned to now.

"It was a long road with the mothership," Reed said. "Assembly took a couple of years -- it's a huge airplane."

And while building the world's first commercial passenger spaceship might sound exciting, Reed said that's not always the case.

"It neared monotony sometimes," he said. "It never quite got there. ... The wing is 140 feet long, and there's 100 ribs to bond. It's many months of the same thing, day in and day out."

"What's neat is when you see people walk in and see it for the first time," he said. "To see them impressed -- it kind of rejuvenates everybody."

And that near-monotony does have an exciting conclusion: seeing something you helped build go into space.

"I'm definitely looking forward to it," Reed said. "It will be exhilarating -- like T-Top was -- when it goes into space."

"T-Top" is the mothership's nickname among Scaled Composite's employees. The mothership made its first test flight on Dec. 21, 2008, and flew to Wisconsin in July for the annual AirVenture airshow in Oshkosh.

"The first few powered flights (of SpaceShipTwo) will definitely be exciting," he said. "Hopefully, they'll take everybody for a ride -- that would be cool."

Pulling gs

It was while he was working in Mojave that British pilot Paul Bonhomme flew into Mohave with his Zivko Edge 540, the high-performance aerobatic plane he flies in the Red Bull Air Race series. Bonhomme had placed second in the series in 2007 and 2008.

"He wanted to have some work done on it," Reed said. "I volunteered for three months. ... It was a bunch of composite work -- the cowling, wing fillets, landing gear fillets, and new canopy."

The Edge 540's engine generates more than 340 horsepower, or about 0.214 horsepower per pound of the aircraft's weight. By comparison, the popular Cessna 172 has 0.06 horsepower per pound.

And the Edge 540 can pull +/- 12 g, or 12 times normal gravity; the US Air Force's next-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter is rated at +/-9 gs.

Compared to general aviation aircraft, "it's a very simple airframe," Reed said. "It's built for one thing -- aerobatics -- so you do wear out some of the components faster."

"Our biggest issue was making the mods so we didn't cook the engine, making sure you're within the operating limits of the engine," Reed said.

The aircraft tracks its performance in numerous ways, Reed said, so it's possible to see how any given modification affects performance.

"We get 25 or 30 different data points every two seconds -- so if we change the air inlet, you can see what it does to manifold pressure, and all kinds of things," he said.

Then he got invited to join the team as a mechanic, going to the first race in the series in Abu Dhabi in mid-April. He also worked at the races in San Diego and Windsor, Ontario; he missed the races in Budapest, Hungary, and Porto, Portugal, but was back for the final race of the year in Barcelona.

"It was kind of a 'thanks,' and a 'come help us,' kind of deal," Reed said. "I used up what vacation I had, and (Scaled Composites) let me take a leave of absence -- provided I had my work here up to speed."

Team Bonhomme had placed first or second at the first five races in the 2009 series, and hopes were high.

"I wasn't worried going into Barcelona," Reed said. "He's been second in the world twice before -- and we were going to drink beer either way, no matter how it turned out."

Because the ground-crew has access to real-time telemetry from the aircraft, Reed knew Bonhomme had won even before the news was relayed to Bonhomme.

"It was great, very gratifying," Reed said. "It was quite a party afterwards."

Bonhomme's aircraft is due back in a few weeks, and Reed is planning to continue working on it.

"If you stand still, you fall behind," he said. "Everybody's working to make their aircraft a little faster."

Reed said he doesn't have any plans to leave Scaled Composites.

"I'm three years in, and everything's glorious," he said. "It's neat to see things you're working on in magazines, show up here and there in the press. I don't have anything to compare it to, but this has got to be more entertaining" than most jobs.

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

Join the Discussion:

Salina.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here. Read our full online terms of service policy.

old guy says....
I have to agree. This was a well written story. It's refreshing to see the good news once in a while. Good job.
11/9/2009

---

atsmith says....
This is a great article, well written, informative and a fantastic highlight of one of our very own central Kansas natives - good work!
11/9/2009

---

M.Redmond says....
Great story! Its great to see a close friend doing so well, and living a dream he has had for many years! I live a little of my life through Jim and what he does! I seen Jim on T.V. the other evening during the airing of the Abu Dhabi Race, very cool! "Air Speed & Oil Pressure", as he would say. Take care my friend and see you soon.
11/9/2009

---

Post a comment
Your best chance of getting your comment posted:

• No profanity
• Be civil
• Everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

Comment:

Poster:

Enter text seen above:

Read our full use policy.