Elbert L. "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943) is an aircraft designer known for designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is most famous for his design of the record breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane SpaceShipOne. From http://www. ... June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. ... Voyager returning from its flight The Scaled Composites Model 76 Voyager aircraft was the first to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. ... A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital flight) is a spaceflight that does not involve putting a vehicle into orbit. ... A rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket for propulsion, possibly in addition to jet engines. ... SpaceShipOne is small, having a three-person cabin and short but wide wings. ...

Biography

Born in Portland, Oregon and raised in Dinuba, California, Rutan displayed an early interest in airplane design. By the time he was eight years old, he was designing and building model airplanes. His first solo flight in a real airplane was an Aeronca Champ in 1959, when he was sixteen. In 1965 he graduated third in his class from California Polytechnic University with an aeronautical engineering degree. Rutan is married to his fourth wife, Tonya Rutan. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Dinuba is a city located in Tulare County, California. ... 1959 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, popularly known as Cal Poly, is a public coeducational university located in San Luis Obispo, California. ... Aerospace engineering is the branch of engineering concerning aircraft, spacecraft and related topics. ...

From 1965 to 1972 Rutan worked for the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base as a flight test project engineer, working on nine separate projects including fighter spin tests and the XC-142 VSTOL transport. Shortly after, he became director of the Bede Test Center for Bede Aircraft, in Newton, Kansas, a position he held until 1974. 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... 1972 was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ... Seal of the Air Force. ... Edwards Air Force Base is an airbase located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley, 7 miles (11 km) due East of Rosamond, at 34°57′ N 117°52′ W. An airbase since 1933, Edwards has long been a home for flight... V/STOL is an acronym for Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing. ... Founded by aviation rebel Jim Bede in 1961, Bede Aircraft created and produced a number of advanced kit planes including the famous Bede BD-5 (pusher propeller driven) and BD-5J (micro jet driven). ... Newton is a city and county seat of Harvey County, Kansas. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...

Rutan struck out on his own in June of 1974 with the creation of the Rutan Aircraft Factory in the Mojave Desert, where he designed and developed prototypes for a number of aircraft, mostly homebuilt. His first design was the VariViggen, a two-seat pusher with a canard in front. The canard was later to become a standard feature in most Rutan designs. In April 1982, Burt Rutan founded Scaled Composites Inc., which has become one of the world's pre-eminent aircraft design and prototyping facilities. Scaled Composites is located in the Mojave Desert. 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled) was founded in 1982 in Mojave, California by famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan out of what used to be the Rutan Aircraft Factory. ... Mojave Desert The Mojave or Mohave Desert occupies a significant portion of Southern California and parts of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. ... Also known as amateur-built aircraft, homebuilt aircraft are constructed by one or more persons for whom this is not a professional activity. ... In aeronautics, canard (French for duck) is a type of fixed-wing aircraft in which the tailplane is ahead of the main lifting surfaces, rather than behind them as in conventional aircraft. ... 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled) was founded in 1982 in Mojave, California by famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan out of what used to be the Rutan Aircraft Factory. ...

Aircraft designs

Over the years Burt Rutan has designed hundreds of aircraft, including the now-famous Voyager, which was piloted by his brother Dick in 1986 on a recordbreaking nine-day non-stop flight around the world. Voyager returning from its flight The Scaled Composites Model 76 Voyager aircraft was the first to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. ... Richard “Dick” Rutan (born July 1, 1938) is an aviator who is most famous for flying the Voyager aircraft around the world non-stop with the assistance of Jeana Yeager. ... This is a list of aviation-related events from 1986: Events January January 9 - the UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, resigns amidst a political furore over the future of Westland Helicopters. ...

He made headlines again in 2004 with SpaceShipOne, which became the first private craft to reach space in June of that year and win the Ansari X Prize a few months later on October 4. SpaceShipOne completed 2 flights within 2 weeks, flying with the equivalent weight of 3 persons and doing so while reusing at least 80% of the vehicle hardware. The craft displays Rutan's unique form of design and aircraft concept. So unique is the design of SpaceShipOne, that Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Virgin Airlines, will be offering in 2008 to take paying tourists into space, using crafts based on the designs of SpaceShipOne. Dubbed SpaceShipTwo, these new crafts, also designed by Burt Rutan, will allow "experience optimized" passengers to glimpse the planet from 70-80 miles in suborbit. Production of the first of five planned SpaceShipTwo crafts is expected to start in late 2005, with the first test flights in 2007. Passengers are expected to fly in late 2008 or early 2009. 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... SpaceShipOne is small, having a three-person cabin and short but wide wings. ... The X prize logo shows a stylised letter X representing a spacecraft trajectory and containing a starfield. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ...

Some of his other designs include the Raytheon Beechcraft Starship, the Proteus, VariEze, Long-EZ, Quickie, Quickie 2, Defiant, and the Boomerang, a remarkable asymmetrical airplane. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is a major United States military contractor based in Waltham, Massachusetts. ... The Beech Aircraft Corporation, purchased by Raytheon Aircraft on February 8, 1980, and often called Beechcraft after the name they give their aircraft, is a manufacturer of general aviation and military aircraft, ranging from light single engine aircraft to business jets and light military transports. ... Beechcraft 2000 Starship (NASA) The Beechcraft Starship is a futuristic-looking aircraft designed by Burt Rutans Scaled Composites, and produced by the Beech Aircraft Corporation. ... Proteus in flight The Scaled Composites Model 281 Proteus is a tandem-wing high-endurance aircraft designed by Burt Rutan to investigate the use of aircraft as high altitude telecommunications relays. ... The Rutan Model 31 VariEze is a composite, canard aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. ... Categories: Aircraft stubs | Homebuilt aircraft ... The Quickie Aircraft Corporation was founded in Mojave, California in 1978 to market the Quickie homebuilt aircraft, which were designed by Burt Rutan and company founders Gene Sheehan and Tom Jewett. ... The Quickie Aircraft Corporation was founded in Mojave, California in 1978 to market the Quickie homebuilt aircraft, which were designed by Burt Rutan and company founders Gene Sheehan and Tom Jewett. ... The Rutan Defiant is a four-seat, twin-engine aircraft with one propeller in front and one in the rear. ... Scaled Composites Model 202 Boomerang The Scaled Composites Model 202 Boomerang is an aircraft designed by Burt Rutan, and built by his company, Scaled Composites. ...

On March 3, 2005, the GlobalFlyer, an aircraft similar to the Voyager design but with stiffer materials and a jet engine, completed the first solo non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world. Steve Fossett was the pilot. March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap years). ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... The aircraft in its hangar in Mojave. ... A Pratt and Whitney turbofan engine for the F-15 Eagle is tested at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia, USA. The tunnel behind the engine muffles noise and allows exhaust to escape. ... Steve Fossett (born April 22, 1944, Tennessee) is a United States millionaire and adventurer. ...

External References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about:

Burt Rutan

• AIR&SPACE Smithsonian interview with Burt Rutan – By Diane Tedschi

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