Burt Rutan

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Burt Rutan
(Photo: Wirral Rocketry Society)
Born	June 17, 1943 (age 63) Estacada, Oregon, United States
Occupation	aerospace engineer
Spouse	Tonya 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.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Air and space craft designs 2.1 Voyager 2.2 Homebuilts 2.3 Boomerang 2.4 Spacecraft 2.5 Starship 2.6 GlobalFlyer 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Estacada, Oregon, 30 miles southeast of Portland, and raised in Dinuba, California, Rutan displayed an early interest in aircraft design. By the time he was eight years old he was designing and building model aircraft. His first solo flight in a real plane 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.

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 LTV 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.

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 Rutan 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,LLC, which has become one of the world's pre-eminent aircraft design and prototyping facilities. Scaled Composites is headquartered in Mojave, California.

Rutan is married to Tonya Rutan, his fourth wife.

[edit] Air and space craft designs

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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. In 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.^[1] They were also the first aircraft to fly with NASA developed winglets.^[2]

[edit] Boomerang

A departure from the canard design was the Scaled Composites Boomerang perhaps one of the unconventional designer's most unconventional Earth-bound aircraft. It is an asymmetric twin-engine tractor configuration aircraft with one engine on the fuselage and another mounted on a pod. A November 1996 Popular Mechanics feature article said it "looks more like a trimotor that lost its right boom and engine". ^[3]

[edit] Spacecraft

He made headlines again in 2004 with SpaceShipOne, which became the first privately built, flown and funded craft to reach space in June of that year, winning 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 project team was honored with the 2004 Collier Trophy, awarded by the National Aeronautic Association for "greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America." The craft embodies Rutan's unique style, and is another of the "icons of flight" displayed in the NASM Milestones of Flight exhibit.^[4]

This achievement was quickly commercialized — Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has announced that it 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.^{[citation needed]}

Burt Rutan is also working with Transformational Space Corporation in the development of an air launched, two stage to orbit, manned spacecraft. It is intended to have a taxi capacity to carry passengers to the International Space Station. As of June 2005, air drop tests of quarter scale mockups had verified the practicality of air release and rotation to vertical.

[edit] Starship

Some of his other designs include the Raytheon Beechcraft Starship business aircraft, the Proteus high-altitude long-endurance aircraft, the Ares military jet, as well as other small, light, general-aviation aircraft such as the Quickie, Quickie 2, and Defiant.

[edit] GlobalFlyer

On March 3, 2005, the 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. 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".^[5] 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^[6] before being flown to the NASM Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Global Flyer is the sixth vehicle designed by Burt Rutan in the NASM collection.^[7]

[edit] Awards

(Alphabetical with year(s))

• Aviation Week & Space Technology "Laural Legend" award (2002)
• Aviation Week & Space Technology Hall of Fame (2002)
• Aviation Week & Space Technology Current Achievement Award (2005)
• Chrysler Design Award (1997)
• Collier Trophy for ingenious design and development of the Voyager and skillful execution of the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world, (1987)
• Design News Engineer of the Year (1988)
• EAA Outstanding New Design (1975, 1976 and 1978)
• EAA Freedom of Flight Award, (1996)
• EAA Homebuilders Hall of Fame, (1998)
• Engineers Council Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson "Skunk Works" award (2000)
• Grand Medal of the Aero Club of France (1987)
• International Aerospace Hall of Fame {1988)
• SETP James H. Doolittle Award (1987 and 2004)
• Lindbergh Foundation, Lindbergh Award (2000)
• National Aviation Hall of Fame (1995)
• National Medal of the Aero Club of France (1987)
• Presidential Citizens Medal presented by Ronald Reagan (December 29, 1986)
• Professional Pilot Magazine, Designer of the Year, (1999)
• Royal Aeronautical Society, British Gold Medal for Aeronautics (1987)
• SAMPE George Lubin Award, (1995)
• Scientific American Business Leader in Aerospace (2003)
• Time Magazine "100 Most Influential People of the World" (April 18, 2005)
• Western Reserve Aviation Hall of Fame, Meritorious Service Award (1988)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Chrysler Design Award webpage
• Online biography
• Biography from House Committee on Science
• Video of Burt Rutan at the TED Conference discussing NASA and space entrepreneurs. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 20 mins)