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Most of you won't know about Burt Rutan. He designed the Voyager, the airplane that flew around the world non-stop, and that doesn't begin to describe the number and variety of unique airplanes he has built. At the end of July, prior the the Western ADIUS meeting at China Lake (yes, another ADIUS meeting), Chuck Estes, salesman nonpareil was able to arrange a tour of Burt Rutan's facility at Mohave. Burt (he just doesn't seem like a Mr. Rutan) spent three hours with us. The facility without the man would be interesting. The facility with the man was fascinating. Want to know how to get NASP (the National Aerospace Plane) built? Just put Burt Rutan in charge. Give him a budget of three thousand dollars or so. The first thing he'd do would be to fire everybody on the project. The next thing he'd do would be to take out an ad in Aerospace Weekly. The next thing he'd do would be to fire himself. The ad would be very simple. It would offer a reward of five billion dollars to the first group with a vehicle that took off from a runway, flew into outer space, then landed on a runway. Do this and as soon as you step out the door get handed the check. For five billion dollars even Coca-Cola would get into the act. You'd get thirty-five, fifty, a hundred billion dollars worth of research for only five billion dollars. That gives you some idea of how the man thinks.
Burt Rutan just builds things. Somebody asked what happens when you go over budget and miss schedules. A puzzled look came over his face. "Why should that happen?" We saw a fighter plane that he built for something around a million bucks. We saw a plane he was building to fly pilotless at high altitudes for extended periods of time collecting meteorological data. The wing would stretch from one end of my aparment and far out the other end but it weighed less than fifty pounds. He builds with composites and doesn't miss an opportunity to say that the major aircraft manufacturers have got it all wrong. They use composites like they would use metal, with holes and fasteners and stress points creating problem after problem. A composite aircraft should be built in one piece. He won't hire aircraft engineers who've worked with metal. He says it ruins them for composites. He showed us a video of a Pacific islander. That man went into the forest and came back with a big palm leaf. Within a few minutes he took that leaf and wove it into a basket. Now that islander understood composites and Rutan would hire him in a minute.
Those of you in Colorado will be proud to hear that Burt Rutan is packing up his company and moving it to Montrose, Colorado. He couldn't take anymore of the California small business climate.
Burt Rutan is what most of us wanted to be when we took up engineering. He doesn't put up with any crap, he just gets things built.
Gregg Writes
| 1989 | Besieged | Claire de Lune |
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| 1992 | Flood --- Riot --- Earthquake! |
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| 1993 | * Gregg and the Trail Bike * | A Stabbing | |
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| Under a Full Moon | Burt Rutan | I Meet a Bear | |
| 1994 | * 7.2! * | A Star Is Born | * My Car Is Stolen * |
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| 1995 | This Year I Flew Like A Bird |
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