GaryM
En-Route
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2020
- Messages
- 3,087
- Location
- Was KMMU, now KCOE
- Display Name
- Gary M
- Home Airfield
- Was KMMU, now KCOE
When Burt Rutan left Scaled Composites, he 'retired' to Coeur d'Alene and promptly started up operations designing and building a couple of new projects. I'd been hoping to run into him at the airport... Earlier this week, there was an event downtown, showing the documentary "Beyond Blue Sky", the story of the SpaceshipOne's successful quest to win the X Prize, with Burt introducing the film, and later answering questions for an hour and a half. It was a pretty cool evening.
Burt, now 83, said he has stopped designing and building aircraft. His design #49 was his last build, though he mentioned he had designed another 400+ on paper.
Most interesting (to me) anecdote: He said he was angry after Blue Origin's first crewed flight of the New Shepard rocket, when Jeff Bezos proclaimed that it was the first time a private company had flown humans into space. "How could he not have known that Scaled Composites had done it, three times, 17 years earlier!" "Beyond Blue Sky" streams on Amazon Prime.
Burt, now 83, said he has stopped designing and building aircraft. His design #49 was his last build, though he mentioned he had designed another 400+ on paper.
Most interesting (to me) anecdote: He said he was angry after Blue Origin's first crewed flight of the New Shepard rocket, when Jeff Bezos proclaimed that it was the first time a private company had flown humans into space. "How could he not have known that Scaled Composites had done it, three times, 17 years earlier!" "Beyond Blue Sky" streams on Amazon Prime.