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Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. He designed the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, 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. With his VariEze design, Rutan is responsible for popularizing the canard configuration and moldless composite construction for homebuilt aircraft. He has five aircraft on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., United States: SpaceShipOne, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, Voyager, Quickie, and the VariEze.〔http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?id=A19830337000〕 ==Life and career== Born in 1943 in Estacada, Oregon, 30 miles southeast of Portland, and raised in Dinuba, California, Rutan displayed an early interest in aircraft design. By the time he was eight years old he was designing and building model aircraft. His first solo flight piloting an airplane was in an Aeronca Champ in 1959. In 1965 he graduated third in his class from the California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo) with a BS degree in aeronautical engineering.〔 〕〔 (【引用サイトリンク】 publisher = Institute for Science, Engineering and Public Policy )〕 From 1965 to 1972 Rutan was a civilian flight test project engineer for the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base, working on nine separate projects including the LTV XC-142 VSTOL transport and spin tests of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom fighter. He left to become Director of Development of the BD-5 aircraft for Bede Aircraft in Newton, Kansas, a position he held until 1974. Rutan returned to California in June 1974, to create the Rutan Aircraft Factory. In this business he designed and developed prototypes for several aircraft, mostly intended for amateur builders. His first design, executed while he was still at Bede, was the VariViggen, a two-seat pusher single-engine craft of canard configuration. The canard would become a feature of many Rutan designs, notably the very popular VariEze and Long-EZ. In April 1982, Burt Rutan founded Scaled Composites, LLC, which has become one of the world's pre-eminent aircraft design and prototyping facilities. Scaled Composites is headquartered in Mojave, California, at the Mojave Air & Space Port.〔(【引用サイトリンク】publisher=Scaled Composites, LLC )〕 That same year, Beechcraft contracted Rutan's Scaled Composites to refine the design and build the prototype Beechcraft Starship. In 1995 Rutan was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, in 2004 he was listed as one of ''Time magazine'''s "100 Most Influential People in the World",〔Flying – 51 Heroes of Aviation http://www.flyingmag.com/photo-gallery/photos/51-heroes-aviation?pnid=41836〕 and in 2005 he received the NAS Award in Aeronautical Engineering from the National Academy of Sciences.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_aero_eng )〕 In a 2010 interview, Rutan articulated his motivation for developing suborbital technology projects with SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo. He was developing suborbital spaceflight technology because in this "we can achieve some breakthroughs," making such flight "orders of magnitude safer and orders of magnitude more affordable. I'm taking this step because I think achieving something that has never existed in manned spaceflight – and that is ''high volume'' and ''public access'' – I think it is important to do that and to do it as soon as possible."〔(Burt Rutan, Aerospace Engineer ), ''BigThink'', interview with Burt Rutan, March 3, 2010, accessed March 6, 2010. Video segment at 8:40 ff.〕 Rutan is married to Tonya Rutan. He retired from Scaled Composites in April 2011. That same year, he became recognized as a Living Legend of Aviation, receiving the Bob Hoover Freedom of Flight Award. In 2012, Rutan spoke on "Innovation and the Space Race" to the World Affairs Council, as recorded on C-Span.〔( Burt Rutan, Innovation and the Space Race, World Affairs Council, Univ. No. Florida, Jacksonville, FL Nov. 27, 2012 )〕 ''Flying'' magazine ranked him at number 18 on their 2013 list, "51 Heroes of Aviation".〔Flying – 51 Heroes of Aviation http://www.flyingmag.com/photo-gallery/photos/51-heroes-aviation?pnid=41836〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Burt Rutan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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