This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008)

A Space Shuttle rocketing into space, just after booster separation.

A spaceplane is a vehicle that operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere, as well as a spacecraft when it is in space. It combines features of an aircraft and a spacecraft, which can be thought of as an aircraft that can endure and maneuver in the vacuum of space or likewise a spacecraft that can fly like an airplane. Typically, it takes the form of a spacecraft equipped with wings, although lifting bodies have been designed and tested. The propulsion to reach space may be purely rocket based or may use the assistance of air-breathing engines.

However, for an aircraft to successfully fly in Earth's atmosphere, it must be able to successfully control, power and sustain its own flight.^[1] If a spaceplane cannot successfully control itself, power itself or sustain its flight once reentering Earth's atmosphere, it cannot be considered successful at aviation in the atmosphere.

Only five spaceplanes have successfully flown to date, having reentered Earth's atmosphere, returned to Earth, and safely landed — the X-15, Space Shuttle, Buran, SpaceShipOne, and X-37. All five are rocket gliders. Only rockets and rocket-powered aircraft have thus far succeeded in reaching space. Two of these five are rocket-powered aircraft, having been carried up to an altitude of several tens of thousands of feet by an atmospheric aircraft mother ship before release. Three are vertical takeoff horizontal landing (VTHL) vehicles relying upon rocket lift for the ascent phase in reaching space and atmospheric lift for reentry, descent and landing.

Description[link]

Landing of NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis. The American Space Shuttles were manned orbital spaceplanes.

Significant features distinguish spaceplanes from spacecraft.

Aerodynamic lift[link]

For an aircraft to successfully aviate Earth's atmosphere, it must be able to control, power and sustain its own flight.^[1]

All aircraft utilize aerodynamic surfaces in order to generate lift. For spaceplanes different shaped wings can be used, delta wings are common, but straight wings, lifting bodies and even rotorcraft have been proposed. Typically the force of lift generated by these surfaces is many times that of the drag that they induce.^{[citation needed]}

Atmospheric reentry[link]

Because suborbital spaceplanes are designed for trajectories that do not reach orbital speed, they do not need the kinds of thermal protection orbital spacecraft required during the hypersonic phase of atmospheric reentry. The Space Shuttle thermal protection system, for example, protects the orbiter from surface temperatures that could otherwise reach as high as 3,000 °F (1,650 °C), well above the melting point of steel.^[2]

Aircraft landing[link]

A spaceplane operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere. Aircraft may land on firm runways, helicopter landing pads, or even water (amphibious aircraft), snow or ice. To land, the airspeed and the rate of descent are reduced such that the aircraft descends at a slow enough rate to allow for a gentle touch down. Landing is accomplished by slowing down and descending. This speed reduction is accomplished by reducing thrust and/or inducing a greater amount of drag using flaps, landing gear or speed brakes. Splashdown (spacecraft landing) is an easier technical feat to accomplish, requiring only the deployment of a parachute, rather than successfully aviating the atmosphere.^[3]

Propulsion[link]

Buran orbiter rear showing rocket engine nozzles, for maneuvering in low Earth orbit and thin air

Rocket engines[link]

All spaceplanes to date have used rocket engines with chemical fuels. Due to the orbital insertion burn necessarily being done in space, orbital spaceplanes require rocket engines for at least that portion of the flight.

Air breathing engines[link]

A difference between rocket based and air-breathing aerospace plane launch systems is that aerospace plane designs typically include minimal oxidizer storage for propulsion. Air-breathing aerospace plane designs include engine inlets so they can use atmospheric oxygen for combustion. Since the mass of the oxidizer is, at takeoff, the single largest mass of most rocket designs (the Space Shuttle's liquid oxygen tank weighs 629,340 kg, more than one of its solid rocket boosters^[4]), this provides a huge potential weight savings benefit. However, air breathing engines are usually very much heavier than rocket engines and the empty weight of the oxidiser tank, and since, unlike oxidiser, this extra weight must be carried into space it greatly offsets the overall system performance.^{[citation needed]}

Types of air breathing engines proposed for spaceplanes include scramjet, liquid air cycle engines, precooled jet engines, pulse detonation engine and ramjets. Some engine designs combine several types of engines features into a combined cycle. For instance, the Rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) engine uses a rocket engine inside a ramscoop so that at low speed, the rockets thrust is boosted by ejector augmented thrust. It then transitions to ramjet propulsion at near-supersonic speeds, then to supersonic combustion or scramjet propulsion, above Mach 6, then back to pure rocket propulsion above Mach 10.^{[citation needed]}

Harsh flight environment[link]

The flight trajectory required of air-breathing aerospace vehicles to reach orbit is to fly what is known as a 'depressed trajectory' which places the aerospace plane in the high-altitude hypersonic flight regime of the atmosphere. This environment induces high dynamic pressure, high temperature, and high heat flow loads particularly upon the leading edge surfaces of the aerospace plane. These loads typically require special advanced materials, active cooling, or both for the structures to survive the environment.

However, even rocket-powered spaceplanes can face a significant thermal environment if they are burning for orbit, but this is nevertheless far less severe than air-breathing spaceplanes.^{[citation needed]}

Suborbital space planes designed to briefly reach space do not require significant thermal protection, as they experience peak heating for only a short time during re-entry. Intercontinental suborbital trajectories require much higher speeds and thermal protection more similar to orbital spacecraft reentry.^{[citation needed]}

Center of mass issues[link]

A wingless launch vehicle has lower aerodynamic forces affecting the vehicle, and attitude control can be active perhaps with some fins to aid stability. For a winged vehicle the centre of lift moves during the atmospheric flight as well as the centre of mass; and the vehicle spends longer in the atmosphere as well. Historically, the X-33 and HOTOL spaceplanes were rear engined and had relatively heavy engines. This puts a heavy mass at the rear of the aircraft with wings that had to hold up the vehicle. As the wet mass reduces, the centre of mass tends to move rearward behind the centre of lift, which tends to be around the centre of the wings. This can cause severe instability that is usually solved by extra fins which add weight and decrease performance.^{[citation needed]}

Single stage to orbit[link]

Future orbital spaceplanes may take off, ascend, descend, and land like conventional aircraft, providing true single stage to orbit (SSTO) capability.

Proponents of scramjet technology^[who?] often cite such a vehicle as being a possible application of that type of engine, however pure rocket and subsonic combustion jet designs have also been proposed and may be easier to design and build. The main problem with SSTO operation is overall weight.^{[citation needed]}

Flown spaceplanes[link]

World's first spaceplanes — North American X-15, Space Shuttle, Buran, SpaceShipOne, Boeing X-37. The X-15 reached space in 1962/1963 (USAF/FAI Kármán line classifications). SpaceShipOne was piloted by the first commercial astronaut. Both X-15 and SpaceShipOne ascend horizontally from a mother ship. Both Buran and X-37 spaceflights were unmanned. The X-37 launches atop Centaur and Atlas V (version 501)^[5] rockets.

Orbital spaceplanes[link]

All three of the orbital spaceplanes successfully flown to date utilize a VTHL (vertical takeoff, horizontal landing) design. They include the piloted United States Space Shuttle and two unmanned spaceplanes: the late-1980s Soviet Buran and the early-2010s Boeing X-37.

The early-1980s BOR-4 (subscale test vehicle for the Spiral spaceplane that was subsequently cancelled) was a spacecraft that did successfully reenter the atmosphere and fly like an aircraft. But it was not designed to sustain atmospheric flight. It was designed to stop flying, open a parachute and then splash in the ocean.

These vehicles have used wings to provide aerobraking to return from orbit and to provide lift, allowing them to land on a runway like conventional aircraft. These vehicles are still designed to ascend to orbit vertically under rocket power like conventional expendable launch vehicles. One drawback of spaceplanes is that they have a significantly smaller payload fraction than a ballistic design with the same takeoff weight. This is in part due to the weight of the wings — around 9-12% of the weight of the atmospheric flight weight of the vehicle. This significantly reduces the payload size, but the reusability is intended to offset this disadvantage.

While all spaceplanes have used atmospheric lift for the reentry phase, none to date have succeeded in a design that relies on aerodynamic lift for the ascent phase in reaching space (excluding a mother ship first stage). Efforts such as the Silbervogel and X-30/X-33 have all failed to materialize into a vehicle capable of successfully reaching space. The Pegasus winged booster has had many successful flights to deploy orbital payloads, but since its aerodynamic vehicle component operates only as a booster, and not operate in space as a spacecraft, it is not typically considered to be a spaceplane.^{[citation needed]}

On the other hand, OREX^[6] is a test vehicle of HOPE-X and launched into 450 km LEO using H-II in 1994. OREX succeeded to reenter, but it was only hemispherical head of HOPE-X, that is, not plane-shaped.

Suborbital spaceplanes[link]

The X-15's rocket engine used ammonia and liquid oxygen.

Other spaceplane designs are suborbital, requiring far less energy for propulsion, and can use the vehicle's wings to provide lift for the ascent to space in addition to the rocket. As of 2010, the only such craft to have successfully flown to and from space, back to earth, have been the North American X-15 and SpaceShipOne. Neither of these craft was capable of entering orbit. The X-15 and SpaceShipOne both began their independent flight only after being lifted to high altitude by a carrier aircraft.

Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic unveiled on December 7, 2009, the SpaceShipTwo space plane, the VSS Enterprise, and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership, "Eve". SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers on suborbital flights, with flight testing scheduled to be completed in the 2012 time frame.

XCOR Aerospace signed a $30 million contract with Yecheon Astro Space Center to build and lease its Lynx Mark II spaceplane, which would be designed to take off from a runway under its own rocket power, and to reach the same altitude and speed range as SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, due to the fact that Lynx is propelled by higher specific impulse fuels. Lynx is designed to only carry a pilot and one passenger, although tickets are expected to be around half those quoted for Virgin Galactic services.^[7]

Hyflex^[8][9] was a miniaturized suborbital demonstrator of HOPE-X launched in 1996. Hyflex flew to 110 km altitude and succeeded in atmospheric reentry, subsequently achieving hypersonic flight. Though Hyflex achieved a controlled aircraft descent, it was not designed for a planned aircraft landing, the engineers opting instead for a splashdown without a parachute. The Hyflex that flew failed to recover and sank in the Pacific Ocean.

Other projects[link]

United States Gemini spaceplane concept testing, August 1964.

Various types of spaceplanes have been suggested since the early twentieth century. Notable early designs include Friedrich Zander's spaceplane equipped with wings made of combustible alloys that it would burn during its ascent, and Eugen Sänger's Silbervogel bomber design. Also in Nazi Germany and then in the USA, winged versions of the V2 rocket were considered during and after World War II, and when public interest in space exploration was high in the 1950s and '60s, winged rocket designs by Wernher von Braun and Willy Ley served to inspire science fiction artists and filmmakers.

United States[link]

The U.S. Air Force invested some effort in a paper study of a variety of spaceplane projects under their Aerospaceplane efforts of the late 1950s, but later ended these when they decided to use a modified version of Sänger's design. The result, Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, was to have been the first orbital spaceplane, but was canceled in the early 1960s in lieu of NASA's Project Gemini and the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program.

In 1961, NASA originally planned to have the Gemini spacecraft land on a firm, solid ground runway^[10] with a Rogallo wing airfoil,^[11] rather than as a splashdown with parachute.^[11] The test vehicle became known as the NASA Paraglider Research Vehicle. Development work on both Gemini's splashdown parachute and spaceplane paraglider began in 1963.^[12] By December 1963, the parachute was already to undergo full-scale deployment testing.^[12] On the other hand, by December 1963 the paraglider spaceplane concept was running into technical difficulties^[10] and subsequently became replaced by the parachute splashdown concept.^[12] Though attempts to revive Gemini's paraglider spaceplane concept persisted within NASA and North American Aviation as late as 1964,^[13] NASA Headquarters Gemini Chief William Schneider discontinued development as technical hurdles became too expensive.^[13]

United States STS Space shuttle concepts circa 1970s

The Rockwell X-30 National Aero-Space Plane (NASP), begun in the 1980s, was an attempt to build a scramjet vehicle capable of operating like an aircraft and achieving orbit like the shuttle. It was canceled due to increasing technical challenges, growing budgets, and the loss of public interest.^{[citation needed]} In 1994 Mitchell Burnside Clapp proposed a single stage to orbit peroxide/kerosene spaceplane called "Black Horse".^[14] It was to take off almost empty and undergo mid-air refueling before launching to orbit.^[15]

The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a prototype made as part of an attempt by NASA to build a SSTO hydrogen-fuelled spaceplane VentureStar that failed when the hydrogen tank design proved to be unconstructable in the planned way. The March 5, 2006 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology published a story purporting to be "outing" a highly classified U.S. military two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system with the code name Blackstar, SR-3/XOV among other nicknames.^{[citation needed]}

Boeing X-37B being prepared for launch in 2010 on an expendable orbital rocket

In 1999 NASA started the Boeing X-37 project, an unmanned, remote controlled spaceplane. The project was transferred to the U.S. Department of Defense in 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Boeing has proposed that a larger variant of the X-37B, the X-37C could be built to carry up to six passengers up to LEO. The spaceplane would also be usable for carrying cargo, with both upmass and downmass (return to Earth) cargo capacity. The ideal size for the proposed derivative "is approximately 165 to 180 percent of the current X-37B."^[16]

In December 2010, Orbital Sciences made a commercial proposal to NASA to develop the Prometheus, a lifting-body spaceplane vehicle about one-quarter the size of the Space Shuttle, in response to NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 2 solicitation. The vehicle would be launched on a human-rated (upgraded) Atlas V rocket but would land on a runway.^[17] For the same solicitation, Sierra Nevada Corporation proposed phase 2 extensions of its Dream Chaser spaceplane technology, partially developed under the first phase of NASA's CCDev program.^[18] Both the Orbital Sciences proposal and the Dream Chaser are lifting body designs.^[19] Sierra Nevada will utilize Virgin Galactic to market Dream Chaser commercial services and may use "Virgin’s WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft as a platform for drop trials of the Dream Chaser atmospheric test vehicle"^[18][20] NASA expects to make approximately $200 million of phase 2 awards by March 2011, for technology development projects that could last up to 14 months.^[21]

National Aerospace Plane[link]

NASP taking off

President Ronald Reagan described NASP in his 1986 State of the Union address as "...a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport and accelerate up to twenty-five times the speed of sound, attaining low earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within two hours..."^[22]

There were six identifiable technologies which were considered critical to the success of the NASP project. Three of these "enabling" technologies were related to the propulsion system, which would consist of a hydrogen-fueled scramjet.^[22] The NASP program became the Hypersonic Systems Technology Program (HySTP) in late 1994.

HySTP was designed to transfer the accomplishments made in hypersonic technologies by the National Aero-Space Plane (NASP) program into a technology development program. On January 27, 1995 the Air Force terminated participation in (HySTP).^[22]

Soviet Union and Russia[link]

Buran orbiter being transported via An-225

The Soviet Union firstly considered a preliminary design of rocket-launch small spaceplane Lapotok in early 1960s. Then the Spiral airspace system with small orbital spaceplane and rocket as second stage was widely developed in the 1960s-1980s.^{[citation needed]} Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-105 was a manned test vehicle to explore low-speed handling and landing.^[23]

Cosmoplane[link]

In recent times, an orbital spaceplane, called cosmoplane (Russian: космоплан) capable of transporting passengers has been proposed by Russia's Institute of Applied Mechanics. According to researchers, it could take about 20 minutes to fly from Moscow to Paris, using hydrogen and oxygen fueled engines.^[24][25]

France[link]

France worked on the Hermes manned spaceplane launched by Ariane rocket in the late 20th century, and proposed in January 1985 to go through with Hermes development under the auspices of the ESA.^[26] Hopper was one of several proposals for a European reusable launch vehicle (RLV) planned to cheaply ferry satellites into orbit by 2015.^[27] One of those was 'Phoenix', a German project which is a one-seventh scale model of the Hopper concept vehicle.^[28] The suborbital Hopper was a FESTIP (Future European Space Transportation Investigations Programme) system study design^[29] A test project, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), is planned to demonstrate lifting reentry technologies in 2012.^[30]

Japan[link]

HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between NASDA and NAL (both now part of JAXA), started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station, the other being the Japanese Experiment Module. The project was eventually cancelled in 2003, by which point test flights of a sub-scale testbed had flown successfully.

Germany[link]

F-104G ZLL at Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr, Berlin Gatow, for Zero length launch

After the German Sänger-Bredt RaBo and Silbervogel of the 1930s and 1940s, Eugen Sänger worked for time on various space plane projects, coming up with several designs for Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm such as the MBB Raumtransporter-8.^[31] In the 1980s, West Germany funded design work on the MBB Sänger II with the Hypersonic Technology Program. Development continued on MBB/Deutsche Aerospace Sänger II/HORUS until the last 1980s, when it was canceled. Germany went on to participate in the Ariane rocket, Columbus space station and Hermes spaceplane of ESA, Spacelab of ESA-NASA and Deutschland missions (non-U.S. funded Space Shuttle flights with Spacelab). The Sänger II had predicted cost savings of up to 30 percent over expendable rockets.^[32][33] The Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace RLV was a much later small reusable spaceplane prototype for ESA FLPP/FLTP program.

United Kingdom[link]

The Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device (MUSTARD) was a concept explored by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) around 1964-1965 for launching payloads weighing as much as 5,000 lb into orbit. It was never constructed.^[34] The British Government also began development of a SSTO-spaceplane, called HOTOL, but the project was canceled due to technical and financial issues.^[35]

The lead engineer from the HOTOL project has since set up a private company dedicated to creating a similar plane called Skylon with a different combined cycle rocket/turbine precooled jet engine called SABRE. This vehicle is intended to be capable of a single stage to orbit launch also and, if successful, would be far in advance of anything currently in operation.^[36]

India[link]

AVATAR (Sanskrit: अवतार) (from "Aerobic Vehicle for Hypersonic Aerospace TrAnspoRtation") is a single-stage reusable spaceplane capable of horizontal takeoff and landing, being developed by India's Defense Research and Development Organization along with Indian Space Research Organization and other research institutions; it could be used for cheaper military and civilian satellite launches.

North Korea[link]

Mockup of NK spaceplane at Mangyongdae Children's Palace

Mangyongdae Children's Palace in North Korea has a mockup of a space shuttle craft or North Korean Space Transportation System, but there has not been any real project for a real orbiter from this country.

See also[link]

• Ansari X Prize
• List of manned spacecraft
• List of private spaceflight companies#Crew and cargo transport vehicles
• Spaceflight

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Hacker, Barton C., and Grimwood, James M. On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, 1975. Published as NASA Special Publication-4203, 1977.

External links[link]

• Encyclopedia Astronautica article on Uragan / Zenit
• Russianspacweb: Russian Reusable Spacecraft
• Popular Science article: Space Shuttle proposals written by Wernher von Braun - July 1970
• Popular Science article: VentureStar, X-34, MAKS, Burlak and other - October 1996
• Popular Science article: Space Access' Space Plane - January 1998
• Popular Science article: Space planes - May 1999
• Popular Science article: Space plane replacement of Space Shuttle and info on past designs including NASP and Clipper - May 2003
• MSNBC - Classic design inspires futuristic space glider

v t e Non-rocket spacelaunch Spaceflight Static structures Compressive Space tower Pneumatic freestanding tower Tensile Skyhooks Space elevator Hypersonic skyhook SpaceShaft Bolus Rotovators Hypersonic bolus Other Endo-atmospheric tethers Dynamic structures Space fountain Orbital ring Launch loop Projectile launchers Electrical Coilgun Mass driver Railgun StarTram Chemical Space gun Blast wave accelerator Ram accelerator Mechanical Slingatron Reaction drives Air launch Spaceplanes Laser propulsion Beam-powered propulsion Buoyant lifting Balloon Buoyant space port Orbital airship High-altitude platform See also: Rocket sled launch Megascale engineering Category

v t e Space tourism Companies Armadillo Aerospace Bigelow Aerospace Blue Origin EADS Astrium Mojave Aerospace Ventures Orbital Sciences Corporation RocketShip Tours Scaled Composites Space Adventures SpaceX Virgin Galactic XCOR Aerospace Organizations ARCA Association of Autonomous Astronauts Astronaute Club Européen Commercial Spaceflight Federation Copenhagen Suborbitals Space Frontier Foundation Space Tourism Society Successful spacecraft Genesis I Genesis II SpaceShipOne SpaceX Dragon Living in space Commercialization of space Space colonization Space habitat Space station Suborbital spaceplane Space competitions America's Space Prize Ansari X Prize Google Lunar X Prize

Wiz Khalifa
Wiz Khalifa in Brooklyn, New York in August 2009.
Background information
Birth name	Cameron Jibril Thomaz
Born	(1987-09-08) September 8, 1987 (age 24) Minot, North Dakota, United States
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, singer, songwriter, actor
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Rostrum, Taylor Gang, Warner Bros., Atlantic
Associated acts	Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross, Curren$y, Big Sean, Chevy Woods, Mac Miller, Juicy J, Tinie Tempah, Yelawolf, Maroon 5, Big K.R.I.T.
Website	wizkhalifa.com

Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by the stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper. He released his debut album, Show and Prove, in 2006, and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2007. His Eurodance-influenced single, "Say Yeah", received urban radio airplay, charting on the Rhythmic Top 40 and Hot Rap Tracks charts in 2008.^[1] Khalifa parted with Warner Bros. and released his second album, Deal or No Deal, in November 2009. He released the mixtape Kush and Orange Juice as a free download in April 2010; he then signed with Atlantic Records.^[2] He is also well known for his debut single for Atlantic, "Black and Yellow", which peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album for the label, Rolling Papers, was released on March 29, 2011.^[3]

Early life[link]

Khalifa was born on September 8, 1987 to a mother and a father serving in the military.^[1][4] His parents divorced when Khalifa was about three years old. His parents' military service caused him to move regularly: Khalifa lived in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan before settling in Pittsburgh where he attended Taylor Allderdice High School.^[1][4]

His stage name is derived from khalifa, an Arabic word meaning "successor", and wisdom, which was shortened to Wiz when Khalifa was a young boy .^[5] Khalifa stated to spinner.com that the name also came from being called "young Wiz 'cause I was good at everything I did, and my granddad is Muslim, so he gave me that name; he felt like that's what I was doing with my music." He got his stage name tattooed on his 17th birthday.^[6][7] He includes Jimi Hendrix, Camp Lo, The Notorious B.I.G. and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony among his influences.^[8]

Career[link]

[edit] 2005–08: Early mixtapes and Show and Prove

Rostrum Records president Benjy Grinberg first heard about Wiz Khalifa in 2004 when the rapper's contribution to a mixtape of various new Pittsburgh artists attracted his interest.^[9] When Grinberg finally met the 16-year-old artist, he immediately decided he wanted to work with him, later telling HitQuarters: "Even though he wasn’t all the way developed you could just tell that he was a diamond in the rough, and that with some polishing, guidance and backing he could become something special."^[9] Khalifa signed to the label shortly after and began a seven year period of artist development.^[9]

Khalifa released his first mixtape, Prince of the City: Welcome to Pistolvania, in 2005. The mixtape paved the way for his first full length album entitled Show and Prove in 2006. Khalifa was declared an "artist to watch" that year in Rolling Stone magazine.^[10][11]

In 2007, Khalifa signed to Warner Bros. Records and released two mixtapes through Rostrum Records: Grow Season, hosted by DJ Green Lantern and released on July 4, 2007, and Prince of the City 2, released on November 20, 2007. His debut Warner Bros. single "Say Yeah" reached number 25 on the Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 music chart and number 20 on Billboard's Hot Rap Tracks. The song samples "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay. Khalifa's vocals from "Say Yeah" appear near the end of Pittsburgh mash up producer Girl Talk's 2008 album, Feed the Animals, over music from Underworld's "Born Slippy", Usher's "Love in This Club", and the Cure's "In Between Days".^[12] Khalifa appeared with The Game, David Banner and Play-n-Skillz at U92's Summer Jam at the USANA Amphitheatre in West Valley City, Utah on August 2, 2008.^[13] Khalifa released the mixtapes Star Power in September 2008, and Flight School in April 2009 on Rostrum Records.

Khalifa parted ways with Warner Bros. Records in July 2009 after numerous delays in releasing his planned debut album for the label, First Flight. Khalifa stated to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that, "I learned a lot during my time there and matured as an artist during the process. I'm happy to be moving on with all of my material and having the chance to be in control of my next moves".^[14] Khalifa appeared with Girl Talk, Modey Lemon, Donora, Grand Buffet, and Don Caballero at the Amphitheatre at Station Square in Pittsburgh on July 31, 2009, where he announced that his relationship with Warner Bros. was over.^[15]

Wiz Khalifa performing at Columbia University in New York City in April 2010.

[edit] 2009–10: Deal or No Deal

Continuing his association with Rostrum Records, Khalifa released the single "Teach U to Fly", and the mixtape How Fly, a collaboration with New Orleans rapper Curren$y, on August 9, 2009.^[14] Khalifa introduced a more melodic style on the mixtape, alternating between singing and rapping. He opened for Wu-Tang Clan member U-God at the 2009 CMJ Music Marathon in New York City.^[16] Khalifa released the mixtape Burn After Rolling on November 2, 2009, where he raps over familiar beats from other artists, including the songs "If I Were A Boy" and "Diva" by Beyoncé, "Walking on a Dream" by Empire of the Sun, "Luchini AKA This Is It" by Camp Lo, and "Best I Ever Had" by Drake.^[17] Khalifa released his second album, Deal or No Deal, on November 24, 2009.^[18]

Khalifa performed at Emo's in Austin, Texas in March 2010 as part of the 2010 South by Southwest Music Festival.^[19] He appeared on the cover of XXL magazine that same month, for the magazine's annual list of Top 10 Freshman, which included Donnis, J. Cole, Pill, Freddie Gibbs, and Fashawn. Wiz Khalifa was named 2010 "Rookie Of The Year" by "The Source", with alongside Rick Ross, "The Man Of The Year".^[20] He toured with rapper Yelawolf on a 20-date tour, the Deal Or No Deal Tour.^[21] Khalifa released the free mixtape Kush and Orange Juice for download on April 14, 2010. Due to Khalifa's devoted grassroots fan base, the mixtape became the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter with the hash tag #kushandorangejuice, and "Kush and Orange Juice download” ranked No. 1 on Google’s hot search trends.^[22]

2010: Signing with Atlantic Records[link]

Citing music industry insiders, New York magazine wrote that Khalifa signed with Atlantic Records in April 2010, although the rapper did not confirm it.^[23] He stated to AllHipHop in June 2010 that he was working on a new album, but was weighing his options and had not yet decided on a label to distribute it.^[24] Khalifa confirmed to MTV on July 30 that he was signing an Atlantic Records deal.^[25]

Wiz Khalifa on stage in Boston in August 2010.

Khalifa was featured in a remix and video for the 2010 Rick Ross single "Super High", alongside Curren$y.^[26] He guested on the mixtape Grey Goose, Head Phones, and Thirsty Women by St. Louis rapper M.C,^[27] and was featured on the track "The Breeze (Cool)" on rapper Wale's August 2010 mixtape More About Nothing.^[28] Khalifa was named MTV's Hottest Breakthrough MC of 2010, winning with nearly 70,000 votes, and beating out finalists Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, Travis Porter, and Diggy Simmons.^[29]

Khalifa appeared at the Soundset 2010 festival in May 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, alongside Method Man & Redman, Del the Funky Homosapien and Hieroglyphics, Atmosphere, Murs, Cage, and others.^[30] He also performed at the 2010 Rock the Bells festival, along with hip hop veterans Wu-Tang Clan, Snoop Dogg, Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, Rakim, KRS-One, Jedi Mind Tricks and Slick Rick.^[31] Khalifa declined an invitation to tour with rapper Drake and launched his own "Waken Baken" tour, a 50-city national tour with rapper Yelawolf. The tour, scheduled to last from September to November 2010, has, as of October, sold out every venue.^[8] On November 2010, during his "Waken Baken" tour at East Carolina University, Wiz Khalifa was arrested for possession and trafficking of marijuana. He was then released the next morning after a $300K bail, and resumed his tour. Khalifa performed in a cypher during the 2010 BET Hip-Hop Awards. He recited his verse from the song, "The Check Point", from his mixtape with Curren$y, How Fly.^[32]

[edit] 2010–11: Mainstream success and Rolling Papers

Wiz Khalifa at SXSW in 2010

Khalifa released "Black and Yellow", his first single for Rostrum/Atlantic, produced by Stargate, which has received radio airplay.^[8][33] The single was peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; the title of the song refers to the colours of the City of Pittsburgh.^[34] Khalifa released his debut album with Atlantic Records in 2011.^[35] He appeared with Curren$y on the track "Scaling the Building" on producer Ski Beatz' 2010 album, 24 Hour Karate School.^[36] Khalifa's record label is Taylor Gang Records, named after his love of Chuck Taylor All-Stars^[8], and Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, PA, where he graduated from.

On March 29, 2011, Khalifa released his first studio album, Rolling Papers. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 197,000 copies in the United States.^[37] Shortly afterward on March 31, 2011 Wiz Khalifa performed at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia as part of the school's annual Dooley's Weekend.^[38] On June 26, 2011, Khalifa was nominated and won Best New Artist at the BET Awards of 2011.^[39] Khalifa collaborated with British rapper Tinie Tempah whom Tinie announced in an interview with Rolling Stone that his next single is to be called "Till I'm Gone" and would feature Wiz Khalifa and is to be produced by Stargate.^[40][41] The single and the video song were released at the end of June 2011.^[42]

Personal life[link]

Thomaz proposed to model Amber Rose on March 1, 2012 showing off the ring on Twitter.^[43] He is personal friends with Snoop Dogg, Juicy J, Yelawolf, and fellow Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller.^[44]

In March 2012, Thomaz purchased a 2.8 private wooded acres with a 3,891-square-foot residence in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, a small community southwest of Pittsburgh. The residence includes 5-bedroom, 4-bath eco-friendly, Brazilian Koa floors, stainless steel appliances, a separate guest house, and a lavish master suite with high ceilings.^[45] He currently resides there with his fiancée Amber Rose.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• 2006: Show and Prove
• 2009: Deal or No Deal
• 2011: Rolling Papers
• 2012: O.N.I.F.C. ^[11][46][47]

Collaborative albums

• 2011: Mac & Devin Go to High School (with Snoop Dogg)
• 2012: TBA (with Taylor Gang)

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]