loading page

X-Prize AMA: I am Burt Rutan, designer of the world’s first private spaceship (SpaceShipOne), and the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling (Voyager). AMA!
  • Burt_Rutan ,
  • r/Science AMAs
Burt_Rutan

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
r/Science AMAs
Author Profile

Abstract

Good morning, Reddit! This is Burt Rutan here to answer your questions. While I am best known for just those two projects, I am known in aviation circles for an unprecedented list of 45 other research aircraft developed by the two companies I founded and ran over a 43-year career. My first company, Rutan Aircraft Factory, also developed 14 other research aircraft and marketed plans for five of them so individuals could build their own personal airplanes. Or, you may, know me because my small team at my second company, Scaled Composites in the Mojave Desert covertly developed an entire Manned Space Program, and flew three of the world’s five manned space flights in 2004. You can read about me at burtrutan.com, or in a new book, How to Make a Spaceship, by Julian Guthrie. “Black Sky”, an award-winning 2004 documentary by Discovery TV described our private, non-Government space program. I will be back at 3 pm ET to answer your questions, Ask Me Anything!