Douglas B. Shane
Doug Shane is Vice President/Business Development, Director of Flight Operations and Test Pilot for Scaled Composites. He has 21 years experience in aircraft flight test, design, program management, and business development, with particular expertise in research aircraft developmental flight test. He has been the Flight Operations Director at Scaled since 1989, and has been directly responsible for the safe performance of more than 25 research flight test programs.
Mr. Shane holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 1982.
Flight Experience:
- First flight and large portion of developmental test of the ARES, a single-seat, single-engine jet fighter, including ground and flight firing tests of GAU-12/U 25mm cannon.
- First flight and project pilot for a next-generation general aviation airplane, powered by a unique automotive-derived engine system.
- First flight of an experimental jet-engine derivative of the Long-EZ aircraft.
- First flight of the VisionAire Vantage business jet.
- First flight of the Williams International V-Jet II.
- First flight of the Adam Aircraft Model 309 piston twin-engine aircraft
- First flight of the Scaled Model 318 White Knight
- Total Flight Time: approximately 3500 hours, in more than 130 types of aircraft
- Hold FAA Commercial certificate, with ASEL, AMEL, Instrument Airplane
- Built and operate Rutan Long-EZ aircraft; own and operate 1948 Stinson 108-3
- Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) and currently President-Elect of SETP
- Winner of prestigious Iven C. Kincheloe Award in 1997 from Society of Experimental Test Pilots
Biography written during the time of the Tier One program.

Founded in 1982 by Burt Rutan, Scaled has broad experience in air vehicle design, tooling and manufacturing, specialty composite structure design, analysis and fabrication, and developmental flight tests of air and space vehicles.
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Model 97 is a two-place, side-by-side airplane of the 300 lb empty weight class. It has a slightly swept-back canard forward and swept back wings with winglets at the tips.
A subscale version of an eleven-place, twin turboprop, high-performance business aircraft developed for Beech Aircraft Corporation.
The Model 133-4.62 ATTT proof-of-concept demonstrator is a 62% scaled version of an airplane designed to challenging STOL and long range requirements.
The all-composite Triumph, an 8,500 lb, pressurized 8-place business aircraft, was designed around the brand-new, never flown, Williams FJ-44 turbofan engine.
Scaled did the structural design, tooling, fabrication, and static testing of an 85 ft span and a 108 ft span rigid sail/airfoil for the America’s Cup Challenge Race.
The ARES, Scaled Model 151, was designed initially in response to a U.S. Army request for a Low Cost Battlefield Attack Aircraft (LCBAA).
The Advanced Engineering Staff of General Motors designed a technology demonstration vehicle called the Ultralite, an automobile with interior room capable of seating four full size adults, and with excellent visibility, handling, performance, emissions and fuel consumption.
The Raptor Demonstrator high-altitude, long endurance, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program was conducted under a contract from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Scaled Composites, LLC.
In early 1993, Jim Rice and Tom Stark of the fledgling VisionAire Corporation visited Scaled with conceptual designs for a new single-engine business jet.
Walled Lake, Michigan, June 23, 1997 -- Williams International today announced that its all-composite, turbofan- powered "V-JET II" light aircraft is on schedule for its July 31 fly-in and follow-on demonstration flights and exhibition at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) convention at Oshkosh, July 30 to August 5, 1997.
Proteus is a twin-turbofan, high-altitude, multi-mission aircraft powered by Williams International FJ44-2E engines.
The Model 309 is a proof-of-concept aircraft built for Adam Aircraft Industries.
The GlobalFlyer is a single seat, turbofan powered airplane designed to fly around the world nonstop, unrefueled, with a solo pilot.
SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft, is a three-place, high-altitude research rocket.
White Knight is a three-place, high-altitude, flexible and capable research aircraft.
The Model 326 aircraft (or Pegasus X-47A) is an unmanned aerial vehicle built for Northrop Grumman.
SpaceShipTwo will be powered by a unique hybrid rocket motor, which is currently under development.
WhiteKnightTwo, or Eve, is the mothership and launch platform for SpaceShipTwo.