This is a pretty amazing thing scheduled for this week.
"SpaceShipOne, designed by Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, will be carried by a turbojet called White Knight to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,240 meters).
"If all goes according to plan, it will ignite its rocket engines that propel the craft to Mach 3, three times the speed of sound, and into space. "
Full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/18/ssone.flight.history/Burt Rutan is the designer. About 15 or 20 years ago, his brother Dick
Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew non-stop around the world in another airplane designed by Burt. It took something like ten or twelve days to do. I think the airplane is in the Smithsonian.
Edit -- Here's an article on that flight:
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/rutan/EX32.htm