Portal:Spaceflight/Selected biography/January 2009

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born 17 June 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He is often described as the "second true innovator" in the field of aerospace materials technology; his most important predecessor was German engineer Hugo Junkers, who pioneered the design of all-metal aircraft in 1915. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refuelling, 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. (more...)