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Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (/ ˈ r uː t ən /; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft.
Named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Inc. Magazine and described by Newsweek as “the man responsible for more innovations in modern aviation than any living engineer,” Burt Rutan is a bold entrepreneur and designer with the vision and passion for the advancement of technology.
May 4, 2024 · Burt Rutan, American aircraft and spacecraft designer who was perhaps best known for SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first private crewed spacecraft. Learn more about Rutan’s life and career, including his other notable aerospace vehicles, including the Voyager.
- VariViggen. During Rutan’s first job, as a U.S. Air Force flight test engineer, he designed an airplane for himself inspired by his favorite fighter at the time, the Swedish Saab Viggen, a Mach 2 delta-wing craft that used a canard to increase its lift on takeoff and landing.
- VariEze. Rutan reasoned that an airplane that wouldn’t stall would be far less likely to crash, and the continuing quest for stall resistance led him to the canard design of the VariEze, which was also the first airplane to fly with winglets (to counter drag created by wingtip vortices).
- VariViggen SP. The 1975 VariViggen earned the suffix SP (special performance) because it doubled the range of the original. Rutan did it by increasing the wing area and making it and the rudder of lighter-weight foam and fiberglass instead of aluminum—and by adding fuel tanks in the wing and attached to the belly.
- VariEze Homebuilt. After the VariEze created a sensation at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Oshkosh, Wisconsin fly-in, Rutan enlarged it (every dimension changed), redesigned it for a 100-horsepower Continental airplane engine, and, doing business as the Rutan Aircraft Factory, started selling plans, based on the step-by-step instructions of Simplicity dress patterns.
In 2004, legendary spacecraft designer Burt Rutan won the $10M Ansari X-Prize for SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded craft to enter space twice in a two-week period. He's now collaborating with Virgin Galactic to build the first rocketship for space tourism.
Long before inventing SpaceShipOne and Voyager— the first aircraft to circle the world nonstop and unrefueled—Burt Rutan revolutionized the practice of homebuilding airplanes with a 700-pound,...
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Elbert “Burt” Rutan. Employed as a civilian flight test project engineer with the United States Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base in California where he worked on nine different Air Force research projects. Became the Director of Development at the Bede Test Center in Newton, Kansas in 1972.
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