Burt Rutan

Elbert Leander " Burt " Rutan ( born June 17, 1943 in Portland, Oregon, United States) is an American aviation and aerospace engineer.

Life

Growing up in Dinuba, California, Rutan studied at the California Polytechnic State University in 1965 and earned a BA in aeronautical engineering. He then joined the U.S. Air Force and worked as a flight test engineer at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In March 1972, he assumed the post of director of the Bede Test Center for Bede Aircraft in Newton, Kansas. In 1974 he moved with his family to Mojave, California and founded the Rutan Aircraft Factory.

In 1982, Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites, the company that developed and now has over 200 employees, an unconventional aircraft prototypes, this time, at a rate of one type per year. The design and structural design of the designs appear here ventured to part, so some of the models are constructed asymmetrically.

One of the last designs is the first privately funded spacecraft SpaceShipOne. On 3 March 2005 the constructed Rutan Global Flyer for the first time succeeded in a circumnavigation of the world by a single pilot without refueling.

End of July 2005 he founded together with British billionaire Richard Branson 's private space company Virgin Galactic. The company will operate a fleet with a total of five room type aircraft SpaceShipTwo.

The end of 2011 announced the Microsoft founder Paul Allen wanting to offer with his new company Strato Launch System rocket launches from the air. The carrier aircraft with a wing span of 117 meters to be developed by Rutan's company Scaled Composites.

Rutan takes a skeptical position regarding anthropogenic global warming.

Prices

Burt Rutan has received many awards and accolades, including:

Constructions

For a list of the types of aircraft designed by Burt Rutan see Rutan Aircraft Factory and Scaled Composites.

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