William Brian Binnie (April 26, 1953 – September 15, 2022) was a United States Navy officer and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites and flown from 2003 to 2004.

[3] Binnie earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Brown University.

Binnie was rejected by the United States Air Force, and enrolled at Princeton University, where he earned a master's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering[3] He served for 21 years in the United States Navy as a naval aviator, reaching the rank of commander.

His flight, which peaked at 367,442 feet (69.6 mi; 112.0 km), set a winged aircraft altitude record for suborbital flights,[6] breaking the old record set by the North American X-15 in 1963.

[7] It also earned him the second Astronaut Badge to be given by the FAA for a flight aboard a privately operated commercial spacecraft.