RIP: Dick Rutan
May. 7th, 2024 05:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneYou may be thinking, what, the famous aircraft designer? Nope, his older brother. Burt is the plane designer.
Dick's biggest claim to fame took place in 1986 when he and his copilot, Jeana Yeager (no relation to Chuck) flew around the world, NON-STOP and WITHOUT REFUELING, in an aircraft designed by his famous brother Burt. That plane, the Voyager, was a heck of a craft. It experienced an engine failure eight hours from completing its historic journey but they were able to get it restarted and land safely. For this trip, Dick, Jeana, and Burt were awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal by Ronald Reagan.
The takeoff weight of the Voyager was more than ten times the structural weight of the aircraft! And it took 14,000 feet of runway before Dick rotated and got the plane into the air!
Burt always wanted to fly and was not only a certified pilot in high school, he was a certified flight INSTRUCTOR in high school! He joined the Air Force during the war in Vietnam and flew 350 combat missions, being shot down once and having to eject a second time over England. He was awarded a Purple Heart, twice the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Silver Star, among other citations.
In a 1985 interview with the Washington Post, Rutan said "All I’ve ever wanted to do is fly, and there are only two types of flying worth a damn: test pilots and combat, the rest is repetitive and boring and should be left to bus drivers.” What a fitting statement from an aviation great.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2024/may/06/legendary-aviator-dick-rutan-mourned
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dick-rutan-whose-round-the-world-flight-made-history-dies-at-85/ar-BB1lVEyl
Dick's biggest claim to fame took place in 1986 when he and his copilot, Jeana Yeager (no relation to Chuck) flew around the world, NON-STOP and WITHOUT REFUELING, in an aircraft designed by his famous brother Burt. That plane, the Voyager, was a heck of a craft. It experienced an engine failure eight hours from completing its historic journey but they were able to get it restarted and land safely. For this trip, Dick, Jeana, and Burt were awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal by Ronald Reagan.
The takeoff weight of the Voyager was more than ten times the structural weight of the aircraft! And it took 14,000 feet of runway before Dick rotated and got the plane into the air!
Burt always wanted to fly and was not only a certified pilot in high school, he was a certified flight INSTRUCTOR in high school! He joined the Air Force during the war in Vietnam and flew 350 combat missions, being shot down once and having to eject a second time over England. He was awarded a Purple Heart, twice the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Silver Star, among other citations.
In a 1985 interview with the Washington Post, Rutan said "All I’ve ever wanted to do is fly, and there are only two types of flying worth a damn: test pilots and combat, the rest is repetitive and boring and should be left to bus drivers.” What a fitting statement from an aviation great.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2024/may/06/legendary-aviator-dick-rutan-mourned
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/dick-rutan-whose-round-the-world-flight-made-history-dies-at-85/ar-BB1lVEyl
