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Aerospace Legend – Burt Rutan

Aerospace Legend – Burt Rutan. Boulder Composite Squadron Colorado Wing, Civil Air Patrol. Burt Rutan. Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan

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Aerospace Legend – Burt Rutan

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  1. Aerospace Legend – Burt Rutan Boulder Composite Squadron Colorado Wing, Civil Air Patrol

  2. Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan • (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in 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, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. (Photo: Wirral Rocketry Society)

  3. Burt Rutan Biography • Born in Estacada, Oregon, 30 miles southeast of Portland, raised in Dinuba, California. • First solo flight was in an Aeronca Champ in 1959, sixteen years of age. • 1965 graduated third in his class from California Polytechnic University with an aeronautical engineering degree. • 1965 to 1972 worked for the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base as a flight test project engineer • worked on nine separate projects including fighter spin tests and the LTV XC-142 VSTOL transport. • Shortly after, became director of the Bede Test Center for Bede Aircraft, in Newton, Kansas, a position he held until 1974. • 1974 created the Rutan Aircraft Factory in the Mojave Desert, where he designed and developed prototypes for a number of aircraft, mostly homebuilt. • First design was the Rutan VariViggen, a two-seat pusher with a canard in front. The canard was later to become a standard feature in most Rutan designs. • 1982, founded Scaled Composites,LLC, (Mojave, California) which has become one of the world's pre-eminent aircraft design and prototyping facilities.

  4. Burt Rutan Homebuilts • His first design, the VariViggen, which he began building in his garage in 1968, made its first flight in April, 1972. It had the rear wing, forward canard, and pusher configuration design elements which became his trademarks. • That design lead to the very successful Rutan VariEze and Rutan Long-EZ homebuilt experimental aircraft designs, in which he pioneered the use of glass reinforced plastic construction in homebuilts. • 1975 his brother Dick set a world record in the under-500 kg (1100 lb) class in the VariEze, and these aircraft went on to set and still hold many world records in this class. • They were also the first aircraft to fly with NASA developed winglets. Rutan VariEze homebuilt experimental aircraft

  5. Burt Rutan Voyager • Over the years Burt Rutan has designed hundreds of aircraft, including the now-famous Voyager, which was piloted by Dick, his brother, and Jeana Yeager in 1986 on a recordbreaking nine-day non-stop flight around the world. It has the honor of hanging in the Milestones of Flight exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) main exhibit hall, with the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis and Bell X-1. Rutan Voyager on display in the National Air and Space Museum

  6. Burt Rutan GlobalFlyer • Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, an aircraft similar to the Voyager design, but built by Rutan's new company Scaled Composites, with stiffer materials and a single jet engine, completed the first solo non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world with billionaire adventurer Steve Fossett as pilot on March 3, 2005. • Reducing weight was critical to the design, and Rutan is quoted as facetiously telling his staff that when they finish building a part, they must throw it up in the air for a weight test, and "If it comes down, it's too heavy". • Between February 7, 2006 – February 11, 2006, Fossett and the GlobalFlyer set a record for the longest flight in history: 41,467.53 km (26,389 miles), the third absolute world record set with this aircraft before being flown to the NASM Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer in flight

  7. Burt Rutan SpaceShipOne • First privately built, flown and funded craft to reach space in June of 2004 • Won the Ansari X Prize on October 4 as 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 project team was honored with the 2004 Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association for "greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America." • Commercial Use - Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, will begin space tourism flights in 2008 using craft based on the designs of SpaceShipOne. • Dubbed SpaceShipTwo, these new craft, also designed by Burt Rutan, are intended to allow six "experience optimized" passengers to glimpse the planet from 70-80 miles up in suborbital space. Production of the first of five planned SpaceShipTwo craft has started, with the first test flights currently scheduled for 2007-8. Passengers are expected to be carried in 2009 SpaceShipOne on display in the National Air and Space Museum

  8. Burt Rutan Other Designs • Starship (Raytheon Beechcraft) business aircraft • Proteus high-altitude long-endurance aircraft • Ares military jet • Quickie • Quickie 2 • Defiant.

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