Injured test pilot’s passion for flying shines through

EVERETT — A terrible accident last week reminded the world that being a test pilot is still a dangerous job.

Shortly after launching, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke apart more than eight miles above the Mojave Desert.

One co-pilot, Mike Alsbury, died. The other, Peter Siebold, survived and is being treated for serious injuries.

Siebold visited Paine Field in Everett this summer when he delivered the White Knight to the Flying Heritage Collection. The gangly-looking plane resembles something like a cross between a dragon fly and a paper clip. It also helped usher in the era of private spaceflight in 2004 when it launched the first manned, privately-owned spacecraft, SpaceShipOne.

Both craft were built and developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a collaboration between aerospace company Scaled Composites and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who also owns the Flying Heritage Collection.

SpaceShipTwo was a successor to that earlier vehicle, which helped Mojave Aerospace Ventures claim the $10 million Ansari X Prize for making two manned space flights in as many weeks.

After the White Knight landed at Paine Field, I briefly spoke to Siebold — and his father, who was on hand for the event. It only took a minute or two for the 43-year-old’s love of flying to shine through.

When Siebold was a toddler, he and his father, Klaus, would often go flying in the family’s single-engine plane. Peter would sit on a booster seat that his father made for him out of two-by-fours wrapped in foam.

“He’s flown with me since he was one year old,” his father said at the time.

Siebold learned to fly before he could drive. He soloed on his 16th birthday, flying from Tacoma to Boeing Field in Seattle.

“I was a single parent for many years,” Klaus said. “I would pick him up at school, and ask him what he wanted to do.”

The younger Siebold always had the same response: Go flying.

“That’s all we did. That’s all he wanted to do,” his father said. “I knew he would be a pilot.”

Siebold said he wanted to help push aviation further. He studied aerospace engineering and jumped at a chance to join Scaled Composites in 1996.

The simple joy of leaving earth’s surface and soaring in the sky is his passion, he said.

“When people ask me what my favorite plane is — it’s the airplane I’m flying right now.”

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.