Burt Rutan
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutanis 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. With his VariEze design, Rutan is responsible for popularizing the canard configuration...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEngineer
Date of Birth17 June 1943
CityEstacada, OR
CountryUnited States of America
We have a lot of openings for people...not just engineers, but people that can help us build research spaceships and production spaceships.
We then develop an expert prototype-manufacturing workforce for our research projects, and later provide production opportunities for them as our spaceships enter the production line.
NASA is doing nothing but development. They're not doing research in manned spaceflight at all and I see no reason for them to do that because we already know that it will work and we already know exactly how it will work.
I like to call the difference between research and development. Some people use that interchangeably. They'll say R&D. They're two totally different things.
A true creator researches how to have confidence in nonsense.
We are looking for people that like to build things with their hands and are good craftsman. We need those that give 100-percent each day and enjoy a fast-paced research and development environment.
In fact, it's more dangerous to fly in space in America now than it was earlier. It certainly is more expensive...more difficult. We've been relying on our taxpayer-funded research organization, Na Say, excuse me, NASA.
The ship that we're developing in our shop right now in Mojave will have a very large cabin.
Breakthroughs are what define our species. They come about because we are threatened.
Dick made the point in 1986 that it would be good for someone to come out and beat the record, and he's delighted to give it up.
I strongly feel that, if we are successful, our program will mark the beginning of a renaissance for manned space flight. This might even be similar to that wonderful time period between 1908 and 1912 when the world went from a total of ten airplane pilots to hundreds of airplane types and thousands of pilots in 39 countries.
Mankind does need to move away from where we are to explore somewhere else.
We can show that we can move right into an industry to fly the public at the level of safety that the early airliners had,
Today's flight marks a critical turning point in the history of aerospace. We have redefined space travel as we know it.