BURT RUTAN: Entrepreneur of de Year

http://burtrutan.com/burtrutan/BurtRutan.php
http://burtrutan.com/burtrutan/BurtRutan.php

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He designed the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the sub-orbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004 for becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to enter the realm of space twice within a two week period. He has five aircraft on display in the National Air and Space Museum: SpaceShipOne, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, Voyager, Quickie, and the VariEze.^{[1] Wikipedia.}

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH FOR BURT RUTAN Burt Rutan was raised in Dinuba, California. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at California Polytechnic University in 1965. His course work also included classes at the Space Technology Institute, California Institute of Technology at Cal Tech, marketing and personnel management courses in business administration courses from Golden Gate College, and classes in the Aerospace Research Pilot’s School at Edwards Air Force Base. Mr. Rutan holds, in addition, the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, dated 13 June 1987; Doctoral of Science, honoris causa, from Daniel Webster College, 17 May 1987; Doctoral of Humanities, honoris causa, from Lewis University, 22 May 1988 and Doctorate of Technology, honoris causa, from Delft University of Technology, 12 January 1990. Mr. Rutan worked for the U.S. Air Force from 1965 until 1972 as Flight Test Project Engineer at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Then in March 1972, he became director of the Bede Test Center for Bede Aircraft in Newton, Kansas. In June of 1974, at Mojave, California, Mr. Rutan formed the Rutan Aircraft Factory (RAF) to develop light homebuilt aircraft, and to market technical and educational documents. Through this company, the VariViggen, VariEze, NASA AD-1, Quickie, Defiant, Long-EZ, Grizzly, scaled NGT trainer, Solitaire, Catbird, and the world-flight Voyager aircraft were developed. In April 1982, Mr. Rutan founded Scaled Composites, Inc. (Scaled) to develop research aircraft. The company currently employs 95 people at the Mojave, California airport. For 14 yearsSince its founding,, Scaled has been the world’s most productive aerospace prototype development company. Most of Scaled’s current projects are proprietary to the customer. Past projects include the 85% scale Starship 1 for Beech Aircraft Corporation, the Predator agricultural aircraft for ATAC, the CM-44 UAV for California Microwave, the Scarab Model 324 reconnaissance drone for Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, the Advanced Technology Tactical Transport (ATTT) for DARPA, the 1988 America’s Cup wing sail, the Triumph light executive jet for Beechcraft, the ARES close air support attack turbofan, the Pond Racer, the Pegasus Space launch vehicle flying surfaces, the Model 191 general aviation single, a 40% scale B-2 bomber RCS model, General Motor’s 1992 show car (the GM Ultralite), the Bell Eagle Eye prototype tilt rotor RPV, the Earthwinds pressurized gondola, the McDonnell Douglas DC-X single stage rocket structure, the Raptor and Raptor D-2 high altitude RPVs for BMDO and the NASA ERAST program, a 40-meter wind generator for Zond, the X-35 for NASA and a tilt-body UAV for Freewing. Scaled developed the full-scale flying prototype for the VisionAire Vantage business jet, built three NASA X-38 crew return vehicle structures, and designed and developed the aerodynamics, structures and manufacturing methodsflight tests for the Williams, Intlernational. V-Jet II. The Rotary Rocket Roton atmospheric test vehicle airframe was manufactured at Scaled. Scaled’s latest flying prototypes are is the multi-mission, high-altitude Proteus aircraft and the Adam Model 309 business aircraft. Scaled is currently developing new composite manufacturing processes for application to general aviation, fighters, and new space launch vehicles. In June 1985, Scaled was sold to Beech Aircraft Corporation, then acquired by Wyman-Gordon Company in January 1989. Mr Rutan was retained as President/CEO. A few of the awards which Mr. Rutan has received include: • EAA Outstanding New Design, 1975, 1976 and 1978. • Presidential Citizen’s Medal presented by Ronald Reagan, December 29, 1986. • Grand Medal of the Aero Club of France, January 29, 1987. • National Medal of the Aero Club of France, January 29, 1987. • Society of Experimental Test Pilots, 1987 J.J. Doolittle Award. • Royal Aeronautical Society, British Gold Medal for Aeronautics, December 1987. • Design News Engineer of the Year for 1988. • Western Reserve Aviation Hall of Fame, Meritorious Service Award, 2 September 1988. • The International Aerospace Hall of Fame Honoree, 24 September 1988 . • Member, National Academy of Engineering, 1989. • 1987 Collier Trophy for ingenious design and development of the Voyager and skillful execution of the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world, 15 May 1987. • National Aviation Hall of Fame Honoree, 21 July 1995. • SAMPE George Lubin Award, 9 May 1995. • EAA Freedom of Flight Award, 3 August 1996 • Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, 1 October 1997 • EAA Homebuilders Hall of Fame, 23 October 1998 • Designer of the Year, Professional Pilot Magazine, 13 March 1999 • Proteus Aircraft included in the list of the "100 Best of the Century", Time Magazine, April 1999 • Proteus • Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson "Skunk Works" award by the Engineers Council, February 2000 • 2000 Lindbergh Award by the Lindbergh Foundation, May 20, 2000

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Model of Voyager

This artist's rendering shows NASA's Voyager spacecraft. On the boom to the right, the Cosmic Ray Science instrument, Low Energy Charged Particle detector, the Infrared Spectrometer and Radiometer, Ultraviolet Spectrometer, Photopolarimeter and Wide and Narrow Angle Cameras are visible. The bright gray square is an optical calibration plate for the instruments. The Golden Record, containing images and sounds from Earth, is the yellow circle on the main spacecraft body. The dish is the spacecraft's high-gain antenna for communications with Earth. The magnetometer boom stretches out to the upper left. The radio isotope thermoelectric generators, Voyager's power source, are visible to the lower left.

The two long thin rods extending out to the left are antennas used by the Plasma Wave instrument. The Planetary Radio instrument also used these antennas when it was turned on.

The two Voyager spacecraft are identical. Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977. Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977.

The Voyagers were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate.

For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Remarks by the Honorable Sean O'Keefe NASA Administrator AIAA ...

VIRGIN ATLANTIC’S GlobalFlyer will take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility for an aircraft world record attempt.

World record attempt to begin at Shuttle Landing Facility.-
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/470838main_The_Apollo_of_Aeronautics.pdf

Voyager

Rutan Voyager on display in the National Air and Space Museum

Rutan was approached by his brother Dick about designing an airplane that could fly nonstop, unrefueled around the world, something that had never been done before.^[20] Around-the-world flights had been accomplished by military crews using in-flight refueling.^[21]

Rutan developed a twin-engined (piston engines, one pusher and one tractor) canard-configured design, the Rutan model 76 Voyager. The pusher engine ran continuously, the tractor engine was used for take-off and initial climb to altitude, then was shut down.^[22][23]

The aircraft was first flown with two Lycoming O-235 engines. After development work, it was reengined with a Continental O-200 (modified to include liquid cooling) as the pusher engine and a Continental O-240 as the tractor engine.^{[citation needed]}

As a proving flight, Dick and his partner Jeana Yeager made a record setting endurance flight^{[clarification needed]} off the coast of California. In December 1986, they took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California and flew around the world (westward) in nine days, fulfilling the aircraft's design goals. The Voyager was retired and now has the honor of hanging in the Milestones of Flight exhibit in the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) main exhibit hall,^[24] with the Wright Flyer, Spirit of St. Louis and Bell X-1.

Spacecraft

SpaceShipOne now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. with the Spirit of Saint Louis and Bell X-1"Glamorous Glennis"

Rutan made headlines again in June of 2004 with SpaceShipOne, which became the first privately built, flown, and funded manned craft to reach space. On October 4, SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize, completing two flights within two 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.^[32]

Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, announced that it would 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, but commercial flights did not begin in 2008 as planned. An explosion at the Scaled Composite factory at the Mojave Spaceport on July 26, 2007, which killed three engineers and seriously injured three others, may have contributed to the delay. They were testing components for SpaceShipTwo, but as of August 2007 Scaled Composites remained dedicated to perfecting the design of SpaceShipTwo.^[33] Virgin continues to work on developing SpaceShipTwo, but it has stopped predicting when commercial spaceflights will begin. ^[34]

Burt Rutan is also working with t/Space 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. In June 2005, air drop tests of quarter scale mockups verified the practicality of air release and rotation to vertical.^[35]

Wikipedia

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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