Scaled is expanding SpaceShipOne's flight envelop fairly aggressively. Their first powered flight featured a 15 second burn and hit about Mach 1.2 and an altitude of about 62,000 feet. This flight burned for 40 seconds and hit Mach 2 and topped 105,000 feet. Still, Rutan is following basic flight test procedures with safety in mind. Burt has designed over 300 planes and actually built 30+ new designs over the last 30 years. That gives him a LOT of flight test experience, and he worked flight test for the Air Force and Bede Aircraft before that. The man knows his stuff.

Contrast this proven approach with what many of his competitors will have to do. Odds are, many of them will go for broke on their first flight. Bad things often happen that way, especially if the team lacks test experience.

Back in the early 1980s when Rutan was building the Voyager, there was a competitor who also built his round-the-world unrefueled aircraft. It was a beautiful design, but sadly it crashed on a test flight, killing its creator. Flight test is still a dangerous business. Experience counts for a lot, in almost a Darwinean way.