April 2006 27
MA Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt acutely interviews Burt Rutan
during an exclusive meeting with the magazine staff.
Guests at the Model Aviation Hall of Fame banquet were thrilled
with Burt Rutan’s presence. Many young and old in attendance
captured a gladly personalized memento.
A slideshow presentation by Bob
Underwood featured this image (by Mark
Lanterman) which humorously suggested a
design idea to support Burt’s latest
recreational interests.
AT THIS YEAR’S AMA Convention,
held in Ontario, California, in January
(which is covered elsewhere in this issue),
aerospace engineer/airplane developer
supreme Burt Rutan was inducted into the
Model Aviation Hall of Fame. His
qualifications for this high honor are
evident in his life’s work in aviation
design and development, which sprung
from his involvement in designing and
building model airplanes when he was
young. (See page 104 of the October 2005
MA.)
Burt came to the induction banquet
straight from practicing for the Bob Hope
Chrysler Classic golf tournament at the
links in Palm Springs, where he played in
the Pro-Am event this year.
Burt’s accomplishments in aviation
engineering are far too numerous to list
here, but most recently he created
SpaceShipOne and earned the
$10,000,000 Ansari X Prize—an incentive
to “jumpstart the space tourism industry.”
It was offered to the first to build a
privately funded and operated rocket craft
that was able to carry three people to 62.5
miles.
SpaceShipOne had to fly into and
return from space successfully twice
within a two-week period to capture the
prize. Burt’s craft achieved this in one
week!
AMA members are proud that Burt
was—and still considers himself to be—a
modeler. His comments to the banquet
attendees were greatly anticipated because
his take on our hobby/sport was sure to be
insightful.
Before the Saturday-night dinner and
Hall of Fame induction Burt was given a
quick tour of the convention show floor.
Later he opened his remarks with two
interesting observations about what he had
seen. First, he complimented those who
had constructed and finished the many
outstanding static-display models,
commenting on the superb craftsmanship
and finish detailing. He said that is the
type of skill he looks for in his employees.
Second, he conveyed his surprise and
dismay to see that few, if any, exhibitors
were selling balsa wood. This concerned
him greatly. Burt competed in the AMA
Nats for the last time in 1960, and at that
time building models was as much a part
of the hobby/sport as flying.
These comments led up to an amazing
announcement by Burt. He is preparing to
build a large number of spacecraft that
will enable routine suborbital flights (and
eventually orbital flights) at affordable
prices. And to do this, he needs
modelers—lots of modelers—to work for
him! He wants gifted model craftsmen, not
aerospace engineers, to help make these
vehicles.
According to Burt, education and age
are not factors in his search; he is looking
for people who take pride in producing
extremely accurate and clean work with
their hands. He predicts an even larger call
for people with these skills in the near
future.
Those of you who have the
qualifications for Burt’s new vision should
consider dropping him a résumé of your
modeling experience. Wouldn’t that be the
job of a lifetime?
After his induction and speech Burt
graciously agreed to be interviewed by MA
staff members. He was on a tight schedule
and had only a few moments to chat, but
the insights gained from the few questions
asked should be of great interest to
readers.
MA: How did you get started in model
aviation, and was your love of flight and
things that fly triggered by your modeling
involvement or was it a product of a preexisting
interest in flight?
BR: I don’t know how I got started. I did
pick up pieces of broken airplanes and
build different configurations as a kid. I
don’t remember that; it’s just something
that my folks told me that I did. My
brother [Dick, who is five years older]
would build kits and abandon them when
they crashed, and I would pick up the
pieces and build an airplane.
And I remember that when I would go
to a hobby shop that I’d be looking at the
balsa wood rack, not at the kits. I wanted
to try something different and I don’t know
why.
I was into model airplanes before
anyone in my family had an aviation
passion. My dad was a dentist and he went
down and learned to fly later. And then he
and another doctor and a farmer got
together and bought this Cessna 140. But
that was long after I had become involved
in model airplanes.
As it turned out, all three of us kids
went into aviation. My brother was an Air
Force pilot and he is an airplane developer,
and my sister is a stewardess.
MA: What type of models did you enjoy
building and flying?
BR: Just everything that I could at that
time. We used to go to WAM [Western
Associated Modelers] meets up in the San
Francisco Bay area. They were all Control
Line. I did Stunt, I did Rat Racing, Scale,
Combat, and Control Line Carrier.
The radios [RC systems] were so bad in
those days and they were expensive too, so
… he needs modelers—lots of
modelers—to work for him!
Photos by Michael Ramsey
I didn’t really get into radio control until I
ended up going to college. I’m talking
about the time period from about, say,
1952 through 1961 when I did all the
model airplane competitive stuff.
MA: Did you gravitate toward designing
your own models, and, if so, were any of
these unique compared to the normal
models of the era?
BR: Well, they were all unique. I’ve got a
picture of me in what was the Seventh Day
Adventist Church equivalent of the Boy
Scouts, called the Pathfinders. And in that
photo I’m holding a model that I built that
looked just like a 707, with the engines
mounted on pylons.
That was back in the days when they
had the [de Havilland D.H.106] Comet
airliner, but before the 707. And I don’t
know why I did that … but there was a
military airplane, the B-47, with pylons …
MA: We know that you competed with
models. What aspects of competition flying
were challenging to you?
BR: Well, they are all challenging, of
course. There is a picture I have that was
taken at either the 1959 or 1960 Nationals
in which I have A1 and A2 Towline
Gliders, a Payload Free Flight model, a
Free Flight Scale model, a Control Line
Scale model, and a Stunt model.
I never did get that much into Control
Line Speed. That was always more
expensive. The guys that flew Speed paid a
lot more for their engines than we could
afford in those days. I couldn’t do the stuff
that was expensive, and that’s why I didn’t
get into RC then. And of course everybody
knows how all of that affected my career.
MA: Do you still fly models or do your
full-scale interests keep you too busy for
that?
BR: No. I don’t even fly full-size airplanes
anymore because I lost my medical
[license]. I’ve got a standby “ignition
system”: a defibrillator. I can’t get my
medical ticket back.
I always said that when I retire I’m
going to go back and do that [modeling].
And at times I’ve thought that I really
ought to get into model aviation instead of
home-built kit aviation because of the
liability aspects associated with it.
If I wasn’t real busy with building these
spaceships right now, I’d be really strongly
considering getting into the modeling
industry as something to do for the next 20
years. You guys have so much better
equipment these days. I looked at all the
stuff that you can buy and I just drool
about the kind of model I could build now.
The problem is that my other interests just
keep me too busy.
The only reason that I’m doing golf is
that I need some exercise. I need to get out
and that’s the only thing I could find that
interests me. In fact, I’ve found that taking
a 4-iron and hitting a golf ball onto a green
is more rewarding than making a good
landing in an airplane. And it’s more
difficult than making a good landing!
MA: Have you looked at the aerodynamics
of a golf ball and tried to improve upon
them?
BR: No, they’re way too complex [much
laughter].
MA: Do you find that engineers and/or
technicians who were/are modelers are
assets to you?
BR: Absolutely! There are two guys who
are in this room [who are great examples
of that]. The guy who designed the IFO
[Indoor Flying Object]—Dan Kreigh—is
one of our best engineers. I hired him
because he was a modeler.
And Dave Ganzer, he works at Paul
MacCready’s company [AeroVironment]
now, and he’s a very good engineer. I
hired him also because he was a modeler.
MA: What skills would today’s
aeromodeler need to possess to aspire to a
career in full-scale aircraft development
and construction?
BR: Lockheed [for instance] goes out and
looks for skills. They are looking for
someone who can follow detailed
blueprints, not for someone who is a
craftsman. And then they train him on how
to lay up composites. But I want to start
with someone who is a good craftsman.
MA: You’ve designed a piston-poweredairplane that has flown around the world
nonstop, a jet-powered airplane that has
flown nonstop around the world, and a
vehicle that has flown into space. What is the
next challenge for you?
BR: I’ve got a lot of stuff going on at Scaled
Composites right now. The challenge that I
can talk about, just because [Richard]
Branson has been talking about it, is that we
are developing a commercial, “fly the public”
spaceship. And we’ll be building a lot of
them. This isn’t a prototype program; we’re
going to build a lot of spaceships!
And there will be spaceports all over the
place. And their operating cost will be such
that it will reach millions of people and
enable them to fly outside the atmosphere. So
that’s a big deal.
MA: You are certainly a unique, out-of-thebox
thinker when it comes to aircraft design.
Are there any designers whose work you
particularly admire?
BR: Certainly Wernher Von Braun, [Sergei]
Korolev—he was Von Braun’s equivalent in
Russia—Kelly Johnson, Howard Hughes. I’m
getting the Howard Hughes award in a couple
of weeks.
I made a list for Aviation Week
[magazine]. They asked me to list what were
the most important things in the first 100
years of powered flight. This was the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers’ powered
flight.
I thought up nine people and wrote them
down. And I wrote that article and turned it
in. And then I started working on this idea
that is not unique, but it really hit me hard that
what people do with their lives has a lot to do
with what they’re exposed to when they’re
kids from 4 years to 14 years old.
And I looked back at this list and I found
out that every single one of those nine people
was a little kid when the airplane had
blossomed from nothing in 1908, to
thousands of pilots, hundreds of airplanes, in
39 countries in only four years. So this thing
really blossomed up; out of all the millions of
kids, the ones who were inspired were that
age.
I was inspired by some phenomenal
increase in activity after World War II. I was
born in ’43. The sound barrier was broken
when I was a young kid, and the Jet Age
came in, the Missile Age, and all the records
and so on just went skyrocketing. I think that
my exposure to that had a lot to do with the
reason that I’ve had the courage to go out and
try new things.
The problem is kids now are being bored.
Cell phones with pictures in them does not
really stroke their passion for exploration and
creativity. I don’t think that does it.
And there are so many kids that can’t do
anything with their hands and they think that
inventing something new is some different
piece of software. You look at [Bill] Gates,
who has made all his money because he
cornered the market on some operating
system and, you know, I’m bothered by that.
That’s not right.
Well, the thing is, you still have kids who
go out and do it, but you’ve got to remember
they are the ones that are going to take us to
the stars. Not the kids that will only buy
something packaged.
MA: In closing, what words of
encouragement or inspiration would you like
to leave our members with?
BR: You know, try to come up to the [AMA]
Nationals. Try to come up with something
where you award breakthroughs—new ideas.
Try to do that. You can’t predict a
breakthrough so it’s kind of hard to say, but
recognize that somebody did something that’s
a new idea and took the courage to fly it.
MA: Thanks, Burt. MA
Sources:
Burt Rutan
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan.html
www.scaled.com/
www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan-2.html
www.space.com/news/050727_branson_ru
tan.html
The Ansari X Prize www.xprize.org/
about/what_is_the_xprize.php
The Indoor Flying Object (IFO)
www.hobby-lobby.com/ifo.htm
www.wildrc.com/htmlpages/designer.html
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/04
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,30
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/04
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,30
April 2006 27
MA Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt acutely interviews Burt Rutan
during an exclusive meeting with the magazine staff.
Guests at the Model Aviation Hall of Fame banquet were thrilled
with Burt Rutan’s presence. Many young and old in attendance
captured a gladly personalized memento.
A slideshow presentation by Bob
Underwood featured this image (by Mark
Lanterman) which humorously suggested a
design idea to support Burt’s latest
recreational interests.
AT THIS YEAR’S AMA Convention,
held in Ontario, California, in January
(which is covered elsewhere in this issue),
aerospace engineer/airplane developer
supreme Burt Rutan was inducted into the
Model Aviation Hall of Fame. His
qualifications for this high honor are
evident in his life’s work in aviation
design and development, which sprung
from his involvement in designing and
building model airplanes when he was
young. (See page 104 of the October 2005
MA.)
Burt came to the induction banquet
straight from practicing for the Bob Hope
Chrysler Classic golf tournament at the
links in Palm Springs, where he played in
the Pro-Am event this year.
Burt’s accomplishments in aviation
engineering are far too numerous to list
here, but most recently he created
SpaceShipOne and earned the
$10,000,000 Ansari X Prize—an incentive
to “jumpstart the space tourism industry.”
It was offered to the first to build a
privately funded and operated rocket craft
that was able to carry three people to 62.5
miles.
SpaceShipOne had to fly into and
return from space successfully twice
within a two-week period to capture the
prize. Burt’s craft achieved this in one
week!
AMA members are proud that Burt
was—and still considers himself to be—a
modeler. His comments to the banquet
attendees were greatly anticipated because
his take on our hobby/sport was sure to be
insightful.
Before the Saturday-night dinner and
Hall of Fame induction Burt was given a
quick tour of the convention show floor.
Later he opened his remarks with two
interesting observations about what he had
seen. First, he complimented those who
had constructed and finished the many
outstanding static-display models,
commenting on the superb craftsmanship
and finish detailing. He said that is the
type of skill he looks for in his employees.
Second, he conveyed his surprise and
dismay to see that few, if any, exhibitors
were selling balsa wood. This concerned
him greatly. Burt competed in the AMA
Nats for the last time in 1960, and at that
time building models was as much a part
of the hobby/sport as flying.
These comments led up to an amazing
announcement by Burt. He is preparing to
build a large number of spacecraft that
will enable routine suborbital flights (and
eventually orbital flights) at affordable
prices. And to do this, he needs
modelers—lots of modelers—to work for
him! He wants gifted model craftsmen, not
aerospace engineers, to help make these
vehicles.
According to Burt, education and age
are not factors in his search; he is looking
for people who take pride in producing
extremely accurate and clean work with
their hands. He predicts an even larger call
for people with these skills in the near
future.
Those of you who have the
qualifications for Burt’s new vision should
consider dropping him a résumé of your
modeling experience. Wouldn’t that be the
job of a lifetime?
After his induction and speech Burt
graciously agreed to be interviewed by MA
staff members. He was on a tight schedule
and had only a few moments to chat, but
the insights gained from the few questions
asked should be of great interest to
readers.
MA: How did you get started in model
aviation, and was your love of flight and
things that fly triggered by your modeling
involvement or was it a product of a preexisting
interest in flight?
BR: I don’t know how I got started. I did
pick up pieces of broken airplanes and
build different configurations as a kid. I
don’t remember that; it’s just something
that my folks told me that I did. My
brother [Dick, who is five years older]
would build kits and abandon them when
they crashed, and I would pick up the
pieces and build an airplane.
And I remember that when I would go
to a hobby shop that I’d be looking at the
balsa wood rack, not at the kits. I wanted
to try something different and I don’t know
why.
I was into model airplanes before
anyone in my family had an aviation
passion. My dad was a dentist and he went
down and learned to fly later. And then he
and another doctor and a farmer got
together and bought this Cessna 140. But
that was long after I had become involved
in model airplanes.
As it turned out, all three of us kids
went into aviation. My brother was an Air
Force pilot and he is an airplane developer,
and my sister is a stewardess.
MA: What type of models did you enjoy
building and flying?
BR: Just everything that I could at that
time. We used to go to WAM [Western
Associated Modelers] meets up in the San
Francisco Bay area. They were all Control
Line. I did Stunt, I did Rat Racing, Scale,
Combat, and Control Line Carrier.
The radios [RC systems] were so bad in
those days and they were expensive too, so
… he needs modelers—lots of
modelers—to work for him!
Photos by Michael Ramsey
I didn’t really get into radio control until I
ended up going to college. I’m talking
about the time period from about, say,
1952 through 1961 when I did all the
model airplane competitive stuff.
MA: Did you gravitate toward designing
your own models, and, if so, were any of
these unique compared to the normal
models of the era?
BR: Well, they were all unique. I’ve got a
picture of me in what was the Seventh Day
Adventist Church equivalent of the Boy
Scouts, called the Pathfinders. And in that
photo I’m holding a model that I built that
looked just like a 707, with the engines
mounted on pylons.
That was back in the days when they
had the [de Havilland D.H.106] Comet
airliner, but before the 707. And I don’t
know why I did that … but there was a
military airplane, the B-47, with pylons …
MA: We know that you competed with
models. What aspects of competition flying
were challenging to you?
BR: Well, they are all challenging, of
course. There is a picture I have that was
taken at either the 1959 or 1960 Nationals
in which I have A1 and A2 Towline
Gliders, a Payload Free Flight model, a
Free Flight Scale model, a Control Line
Scale model, and a Stunt model.
I never did get that much into Control
Line Speed. That was always more
expensive. The guys that flew Speed paid a
lot more for their engines than we could
afford in those days. I couldn’t do the stuff
that was expensive, and that’s why I didn’t
get into RC then. And of course everybody
knows how all of that affected my career.
MA: Do you still fly models or do your
full-scale interests keep you too busy for
that?
BR: No. I don’t even fly full-size airplanes
anymore because I lost my medical
[license]. I’ve got a standby “ignition
system”: a defibrillator. I can’t get my
medical ticket back.
I always said that when I retire I’m
going to go back and do that [modeling].
And at times I’ve thought that I really
ought to get into model aviation instead of
home-built kit aviation because of the
liability aspects associated with it.
If I wasn’t real busy with building these
spaceships right now, I’d be really strongly
considering getting into the modeling
industry as something to do for the next 20
years. You guys have so much better
equipment these days. I looked at all the
stuff that you can buy and I just drool
about the kind of model I could build now.
The problem is that my other interests just
keep me too busy.
The only reason that I’m doing golf is
that I need some exercise. I need to get out
and that’s the only thing I could find that
interests me. In fact, I’ve found that taking
a 4-iron and hitting a golf ball onto a green
is more rewarding than making a good
landing in an airplane. And it’s more
difficult than making a good landing!
MA: Have you looked at the aerodynamics
of a golf ball and tried to improve upon
them?
BR: No, they’re way too complex [much
laughter].
MA: Do you find that engineers and/or
technicians who were/are modelers are
assets to you?
BR: Absolutely! There are two guys who
are in this room [who are great examples
of that]. The guy who designed the IFO
[Indoor Flying Object]—Dan Kreigh—is
one of our best engineers. I hired him
because he was a modeler.
And Dave Ganzer, he works at Paul
MacCready’s company [AeroVironment]
now, and he’s a very good engineer. I
hired him also because he was a modeler.
MA: What skills would today’s
aeromodeler need to possess to aspire to a
career in full-scale aircraft development
and construction?
BR: Lockheed [for instance] goes out and
looks for skills. They are looking for
someone who can follow detailed
blueprints, not for someone who is a
craftsman. And then they train him on how
to lay up composites. But I want to start
with someone who is a good craftsman.
MA: You’ve designed a piston-poweredairplane that has flown around the world
nonstop, a jet-powered airplane that has
flown nonstop around the world, and a
vehicle that has flown into space. What is the
next challenge for you?
BR: I’ve got a lot of stuff going on at Scaled
Composites right now. The challenge that I
can talk about, just because [Richard]
Branson has been talking about it, is that we
are developing a commercial, “fly the public”
spaceship. And we’ll be building a lot of
them. This isn’t a prototype program; we’re
going to build a lot of spaceships!
And there will be spaceports all over the
place. And their operating cost will be such
that it will reach millions of people and
enable them to fly outside the atmosphere. So
that’s a big deal.
MA: You are certainly a unique, out-of-thebox
thinker when it comes to aircraft design.
Are there any designers whose work you
particularly admire?
BR: Certainly Wernher Von Braun, [Sergei]
Korolev—he was Von Braun’s equivalent in
Russia—Kelly Johnson, Howard Hughes. I’m
getting the Howard Hughes award in a couple
of weeks.
I made a list for Aviation Week
[magazine]. They asked me to list what were
the most important things in the first 100
years of powered flight. This was the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers’ powered
flight.
I thought up nine people and wrote them
down. And I wrote that article and turned it
in. And then I started working on this idea
that is not unique, but it really hit me hard that
what people do with their lives has a lot to do
with what they’re exposed to when they’re
kids from 4 years to 14 years old.
And I looked back at this list and I found
out that every single one of those nine people
was a little kid when the airplane had
blossomed from nothing in 1908, to
thousands of pilots, hundreds of airplanes, in
39 countries in only four years. So this thing
really blossomed up; out of all the millions of
kids, the ones who were inspired were that
age.
I was inspired by some phenomenal
increase in activity after World War II. I was
born in ’43. The sound barrier was broken
when I was a young kid, and the Jet Age
came in, the Missile Age, and all the records
and so on just went skyrocketing. I think that
my exposure to that had a lot to do with the
reason that I’ve had the courage to go out and
try new things.
The problem is kids now are being bored.
Cell phones with pictures in them does not
really stroke their passion for exploration and
creativity. I don’t think that does it.
And there are so many kids that can’t do
anything with their hands and they think that
inventing something new is some different
piece of software. You look at [Bill] Gates,
who has made all his money because he
cornered the market on some operating
system and, you know, I’m bothered by that.
That’s not right.
Well, the thing is, you still have kids who
go out and do it, but you’ve got to remember
they are the ones that are going to take us to
the stars. Not the kids that will only buy
something packaged.
MA: In closing, what words of
encouragement or inspiration would you like
to leave our members with?
BR: You know, try to come up to the [AMA]
Nationals. Try to come up with something
where you award breakthroughs—new ideas.
Try to do that. You can’t predict a
breakthrough so it’s kind of hard to say, but
recognize that somebody did something that’s
a new idea and took the courage to fly it.
MA: Thanks, Burt. MA
Sources:
Burt Rutan
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan.html
www.scaled.com/
www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan-2.html
www.space.com/news/050727_branson_ru
tan.html
The Ansari X Prize www.xprize.org/
about/what_is_the_xprize.php
The Indoor Flying Object (IFO)
www.hobby-lobby.com/ifo.htm
www.wildrc.com/htmlpages/designer.html
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/04
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,30
April 2006 27
MA Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt acutely interviews Burt Rutan
during an exclusive meeting with the magazine staff.
Guests at the Model Aviation Hall of Fame banquet were thrilled
with Burt Rutan’s presence. Many young and old in attendance
captured a gladly personalized memento.
A slideshow presentation by Bob
Underwood featured this image (by Mark
Lanterman) which humorously suggested a
design idea to support Burt’s latest
recreational interests.
AT THIS YEAR’S AMA Convention,
held in Ontario, California, in January
(which is covered elsewhere in this issue),
aerospace engineer/airplane developer
supreme Burt Rutan was inducted into the
Model Aviation Hall of Fame. His
qualifications for this high honor are
evident in his life’s work in aviation
design and development, which sprung
from his involvement in designing and
building model airplanes when he was
young. (See page 104 of the October 2005
MA.)
Burt came to the induction banquet
straight from practicing for the Bob Hope
Chrysler Classic golf tournament at the
links in Palm Springs, where he played in
the Pro-Am event this year.
Burt’s accomplishments in aviation
engineering are far too numerous to list
here, but most recently he created
SpaceShipOne and earned the
$10,000,000 Ansari X Prize—an incentive
to “jumpstart the space tourism industry.”
It was offered to the first to build a
privately funded and operated rocket craft
that was able to carry three people to 62.5
miles.
SpaceShipOne had to fly into and
return from space successfully twice
within a two-week period to capture the
prize. Burt’s craft achieved this in one
week!
AMA members are proud that Burt
was—and still considers himself to be—a
modeler. His comments to the banquet
attendees were greatly anticipated because
his take on our hobby/sport was sure to be
insightful.
Before the Saturday-night dinner and
Hall of Fame induction Burt was given a
quick tour of the convention show floor.
Later he opened his remarks with two
interesting observations about what he had
seen. First, he complimented those who
had constructed and finished the many
outstanding static-display models,
commenting on the superb craftsmanship
and finish detailing. He said that is the
type of skill he looks for in his employees.
Second, he conveyed his surprise and
dismay to see that few, if any, exhibitors
were selling balsa wood. This concerned
him greatly. Burt competed in the AMA
Nats for the last time in 1960, and at that
time building models was as much a part
of the hobby/sport as flying.
These comments led up to an amazing
announcement by Burt. He is preparing to
build a large number of spacecraft that
will enable routine suborbital flights (and
eventually orbital flights) at affordable
prices. And to do this, he needs
modelers—lots of modelers—to work for
him! He wants gifted model craftsmen, not
aerospace engineers, to help make these
vehicles.
According to Burt, education and age
are not factors in his search; he is looking
for people who take pride in producing
extremely accurate and clean work with
their hands. He predicts an even larger call
for people with these skills in the near
future.
Those of you who have the
qualifications for Burt’s new vision should
consider dropping him a résumé of your
modeling experience. Wouldn’t that be the
job of a lifetime?
After his induction and speech Burt
graciously agreed to be interviewed by MA
staff members. He was on a tight schedule
and had only a few moments to chat, but
the insights gained from the few questions
asked should be of great interest to
readers.
MA: How did you get started in model
aviation, and was your love of flight and
things that fly triggered by your modeling
involvement or was it a product of a preexisting
interest in flight?
BR: I don’t know how I got started. I did
pick up pieces of broken airplanes and
build different configurations as a kid. I
don’t remember that; it’s just something
that my folks told me that I did. My
brother [Dick, who is five years older]
would build kits and abandon them when
they crashed, and I would pick up the
pieces and build an airplane.
And I remember that when I would go
to a hobby shop that I’d be looking at the
balsa wood rack, not at the kits. I wanted
to try something different and I don’t know
why.
I was into model airplanes before
anyone in my family had an aviation
passion. My dad was a dentist and he went
down and learned to fly later. And then he
and another doctor and a farmer got
together and bought this Cessna 140. But
that was long after I had become involved
in model airplanes.
As it turned out, all three of us kids
went into aviation. My brother was an Air
Force pilot and he is an airplane developer,
and my sister is a stewardess.
MA: What type of models did you enjoy
building and flying?
BR: Just everything that I could at that
time. We used to go to WAM [Western
Associated Modelers] meets up in the San
Francisco Bay area. They were all Control
Line. I did Stunt, I did Rat Racing, Scale,
Combat, and Control Line Carrier.
The radios [RC systems] were so bad in
those days and they were expensive too, so
… he needs modelers—lots of
modelers—to work for him!
Photos by Michael Ramsey
I didn’t really get into radio control until I
ended up going to college. I’m talking
about the time period from about, say,
1952 through 1961 when I did all the
model airplane competitive stuff.
MA: Did you gravitate toward designing
your own models, and, if so, were any of
these unique compared to the normal
models of the era?
BR: Well, they were all unique. I’ve got a
picture of me in what was the Seventh Day
Adventist Church equivalent of the Boy
Scouts, called the Pathfinders. And in that
photo I’m holding a model that I built that
looked just like a 707, with the engines
mounted on pylons.
That was back in the days when they
had the [de Havilland D.H.106] Comet
airliner, but before the 707. And I don’t
know why I did that … but there was a
military airplane, the B-47, with pylons …
MA: We know that you competed with
models. What aspects of competition flying
were challenging to you?
BR: Well, they are all challenging, of
course. There is a picture I have that was
taken at either the 1959 or 1960 Nationals
in which I have A1 and A2 Towline
Gliders, a Payload Free Flight model, a
Free Flight Scale model, a Control Line
Scale model, and a Stunt model.
I never did get that much into Control
Line Speed. That was always more
expensive. The guys that flew Speed paid a
lot more for their engines than we could
afford in those days. I couldn’t do the stuff
that was expensive, and that’s why I didn’t
get into RC then. And of course everybody
knows how all of that affected my career.
MA: Do you still fly models or do your
full-scale interests keep you too busy for
that?
BR: No. I don’t even fly full-size airplanes
anymore because I lost my medical
[license]. I’ve got a standby “ignition
system”: a defibrillator. I can’t get my
medical ticket back.
I always said that when I retire I’m
going to go back and do that [modeling].
And at times I’ve thought that I really
ought to get into model aviation instead of
home-built kit aviation because of the
liability aspects associated with it.
If I wasn’t real busy with building these
spaceships right now, I’d be really strongly
considering getting into the modeling
industry as something to do for the next 20
years. You guys have so much better
equipment these days. I looked at all the
stuff that you can buy and I just drool
about the kind of model I could build now.
The problem is that my other interests just
keep me too busy.
The only reason that I’m doing golf is
that I need some exercise. I need to get out
and that’s the only thing I could find that
interests me. In fact, I’ve found that taking
a 4-iron and hitting a golf ball onto a green
is more rewarding than making a good
landing in an airplane. And it’s more
difficult than making a good landing!
MA: Have you looked at the aerodynamics
of a golf ball and tried to improve upon
them?
BR: No, they’re way too complex [much
laughter].
MA: Do you find that engineers and/or
technicians who were/are modelers are
assets to you?
BR: Absolutely! There are two guys who
are in this room [who are great examples
of that]. The guy who designed the IFO
[Indoor Flying Object]—Dan Kreigh—is
one of our best engineers. I hired him
because he was a modeler.
And Dave Ganzer, he works at Paul
MacCready’s company [AeroVironment]
now, and he’s a very good engineer. I
hired him also because he was a modeler.
MA: What skills would today’s
aeromodeler need to possess to aspire to a
career in full-scale aircraft development
and construction?
BR: Lockheed [for instance] goes out and
looks for skills. They are looking for
someone who can follow detailed
blueprints, not for someone who is a
craftsman. And then they train him on how
to lay up composites. But I want to start
with someone who is a good craftsman.
MA: You’ve designed a piston-poweredairplane that has flown around the world
nonstop, a jet-powered airplane that has
flown nonstop around the world, and a
vehicle that has flown into space. What is the
next challenge for you?
BR: I’ve got a lot of stuff going on at Scaled
Composites right now. The challenge that I
can talk about, just because [Richard]
Branson has been talking about it, is that we
are developing a commercial, “fly the public”
spaceship. And we’ll be building a lot of
them. This isn’t a prototype program; we’re
going to build a lot of spaceships!
And there will be spaceports all over the
place. And their operating cost will be such
that it will reach millions of people and
enable them to fly outside the atmosphere. So
that’s a big deal.
MA: You are certainly a unique, out-of-thebox
thinker when it comes to aircraft design.
Are there any designers whose work you
particularly admire?
BR: Certainly Wernher Von Braun, [Sergei]
Korolev—he was Von Braun’s equivalent in
Russia—Kelly Johnson, Howard Hughes. I’m
getting the Howard Hughes award in a couple
of weeks.
I made a list for Aviation Week
[magazine]. They asked me to list what were
the most important things in the first 100
years of powered flight. This was the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers’ powered
flight.
I thought up nine people and wrote them
down. And I wrote that article and turned it
in. And then I started working on this idea
that is not unique, but it really hit me hard that
what people do with their lives has a lot to do
with what they’re exposed to when they’re
kids from 4 years to 14 years old.
And I looked back at this list and I found
out that every single one of those nine people
was a little kid when the airplane had
blossomed from nothing in 1908, to
thousands of pilots, hundreds of airplanes, in
39 countries in only four years. So this thing
really blossomed up; out of all the millions of
kids, the ones who were inspired were that
age.
I was inspired by some phenomenal
increase in activity after World War II. I was
born in ’43. The sound barrier was broken
when I was a young kid, and the Jet Age
came in, the Missile Age, and all the records
and so on just went skyrocketing. I think that
my exposure to that had a lot to do with the
reason that I’ve had the courage to go out and
try new things.
The problem is kids now are being bored.
Cell phones with pictures in them does not
really stroke their passion for exploration and
creativity. I don’t think that does it.
And there are so many kids that can’t do
anything with their hands and they think that
inventing something new is some different
piece of software. You look at [Bill] Gates,
who has made all his money because he
cornered the market on some operating
system and, you know, I’m bothered by that.
That’s not right.
Well, the thing is, you still have kids who
go out and do it, but you’ve got to remember
they are the ones that are going to take us to
the stars. Not the kids that will only buy
something packaged.
MA: In closing, what words of
encouragement or inspiration would you like
to leave our members with?
BR: You know, try to come up to the [AMA]
Nationals. Try to come up with something
where you award breakthroughs—new ideas.
Try to do that. You can’t predict a
breakthrough so it’s kind of hard to say, but
recognize that somebody did something that’s
a new idea and took the courage to fly it.
MA: Thanks, Burt. MA
Sources:
Burt Rutan
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan.html
www.scaled.com/
www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan-2.html
www.space.com/news/050727_branson_ru
tan.html
The Ansari X Prize www.xprize.org/
about/what_is_the_xprize.php
The Indoor Flying Object (IFO)
www.hobby-lobby.com/ifo.htm
www.wildrc.com/htmlpages/designer.html
Edition: Model Aviation - 2006/04
Page Numbers: 26,27,28,30
April 2006 27
MA Aeromodeling Editor Bob Hunt acutely interviews Burt Rutan
during an exclusive meeting with the magazine staff.
Guests at the Model Aviation Hall of Fame banquet were thrilled
with Burt Rutan’s presence. Many young and old in attendance
captured a gladly personalized memento.
A slideshow presentation by Bob
Underwood featured this image (by Mark
Lanterman) which humorously suggested a
design idea to support Burt’s latest
recreational interests.
AT THIS YEAR’S AMA Convention,
held in Ontario, California, in January
(which is covered elsewhere in this issue),
aerospace engineer/airplane developer
supreme Burt Rutan was inducted into the
Model Aviation Hall of Fame. His
qualifications for this high honor are
evident in his life’s work in aviation
design and development, which sprung
from his involvement in designing and
building model airplanes when he was
young. (See page 104 of the October 2005
MA.)
Burt came to the induction banquet
straight from practicing for the Bob Hope
Chrysler Classic golf tournament at the
links in Palm Springs, where he played in
the Pro-Am event this year.
Burt’s accomplishments in aviation
engineering are far too numerous to list
here, but most recently he created
SpaceShipOne and earned the
$10,000,000 Ansari X Prize—an incentive
to “jumpstart the space tourism industry.”
It was offered to the first to build a
privately funded and operated rocket craft
that was able to carry three people to 62.5
miles.
SpaceShipOne had to fly into and
return from space successfully twice
within a two-week period to capture the
prize. Burt’s craft achieved this in one
week!
AMA members are proud that Burt
was—and still considers himself to be—a
modeler. His comments to the banquet
attendees were greatly anticipated because
his take on our hobby/sport was sure to be
insightful.
Before the Saturday-night dinner and
Hall of Fame induction Burt was given a
quick tour of the convention show floor.
Later he opened his remarks with two
interesting observations about what he had
seen. First, he complimented those who
had constructed and finished the many
outstanding static-display models,
commenting on the superb craftsmanship
and finish detailing. He said that is the
type of skill he looks for in his employees.
Second, he conveyed his surprise and
dismay to see that few, if any, exhibitors
were selling balsa wood. This concerned
him greatly. Burt competed in the AMA
Nats for the last time in 1960, and at that
time building models was as much a part
of the hobby/sport as flying.
These comments led up to an amazing
announcement by Burt. He is preparing to
build a large number of spacecraft that
will enable routine suborbital flights (and
eventually orbital flights) at affordable
prices. And to do this, he needs
modelers—lots of modelers—to work for
him! He wants gifted model craftsmen, not
aerospace engineers, to help make these
vehicles.
According to Burt, education and age
are not factors in his search; he is looking
for people who take pride in producing
extremely accurate and clean work with
their hands. He predicts an even larger call
for people with these skills in the near
future.
Those of you who have the
qualifications for Burt’s new vision should
consider dropping him a résumé of your
modeling experience. Wouldn’t that be the
job of a lifetime?
After his induction and speech Burt
graciously agreed to be interviewed by MA
staff members. He was on a tight schedule
and had only a few moments to chat, but
the insights gained from the few questions
asked should be of great interest to
readers.
MA: How did you get started in model
aviation, and was your love of flight and
things that fly triggered by your modeling
involvement or was it a product of a preexisting
interest in flight?
BR: I don’t know how I got started. I did
pick up pieces of broken airplanes and
build different configurations as a kid. I
don’t remember that; it’s just something
that my folks told me that I did. My
brother [Dick, who is five years older]
would build kits and abandon them when
they crashed, and I would pick up the
pieces and build an airplane.
And I remember that when I would go
to a hobby shop that I’d be looking at the
balsa wood rack, not at the kits. I wanted
to try something different and I don’t know
why.
I was into model airplanes before
anyone in my family had an aviation
passion. My dad was a dentist and he went
down and learned to fly later. And then he
and another doctor and a farmer got
together and bought this Cessna 140. But
that was long after I had become involved
in model airplanes.
As it turned out, all three of us kids
went into aviation. My brother was an Air
Force pilot and he is an airplane developer,
and my sister is a stewardess.
MA: What type of models did you enjoy
building and flying?
BR: Just everything that I could at that
time. We used to go to WAM [Western
Associated Modelers] meets up in the San
Francisco Bay area. They were all Control
Line. I did Stunt, I did Rat Racing, Scale,
Combat, and Control Line Carrier.
The radios [RC systems] were so bad in
those days and they were expensive too, so
… he needs modelers—lots of
modelers—to work for him!
Photos by Michael Ramsey
I didn’t really get into radio control until I
ended up going to college. I’m talking
about the time period from about, say,
1952 through 1961 when I did all the
model airplane competitive stuff.
MA: Did you gravitate toward designing
your own models, and, if so, were any of
these unique compared to the normal
models of the era?
BR: Well, they were all unique. I’ve got a
picture of me in what was the Seventh Day
Adventist Church equivalent of the Boy
Scouts, called the Pathfinders. And in that
photo I’m holding a model that I built that
looked just like a 707, with the engines
mounted on pylons.
That was back in the days when they
had the [de Havilland D.H.106] Comet
airliner, but before the 707. And I don’t
know why I did that … but there was a
military airplane, the B-47, with pylons …
MA: We know that you competed with
models. What aspects of competition flying
were challenging to you?
BR: Well, they are all challenging, of
course. There is a picture I have that was
taken at either the 1959 or 1960 Nationals
in which I have A1 and A2 Towline
Gliders, a Payload Free Flight model, a
Free Flight Scale model, a Control Line
Scale model, and a Stunt model.
I never did get that much into Control
Line Speed. That was always more
expensive. The guys that flew Speed paid a
lot more for their engines than we could
afford in those days. I couldn’t do the stuff
that was expensive, and that’s why I didn’t
get into RC then. And of course everybody
knows how all of that affected my career.
MA: Do you still fly models or do your
full-scale interests keep you too busy for
that?
BR: No. I don’t even fly full-size airplanes
anymore because I lost my medical
[license]. I’ve got a standby “ignition
system”: a defibrillator. I can’t get my
medical ticket back.
I always said that when I retire I’m
going to go back and do that [modeling].
And at times I’ve thought that I really
ought to get into model aviation instead of
home-built kit aviation because of the
liability aspects associated with it.
If I wasn’t real busy with building these
spaceships right now, I’d be really strongly
considering getting into the modeling
industry as something to do for the next 20
years. You guys have so much better
equipment these days. I looked at all the
stuff that you can buy and I just drool
about the kind of model I could build now.
The problem is that my other interests just
keep me too busy.
The only reason that I’m doing golf is
that I need some exercise. I need to get out
and that’s the only thing I could find that
interests me. In fact, I’ve found that taking
a 4-iron and hitting a golf ball onto a green
is more rewarding than making a good
landing in an airplane. And it’s more
difficult than making a good landing!
MA: Have you looked at the aerodynamics
of a golf ball and tried to improve upon
them?
BR: No, they’re way too complex [much
laughter].
MA: Do you find that engineers and/or
technicians who were/are modelers are
assets to you?
BR: Absolutely! There are two guys who
are in this room [who are great examples
of that]. The guy who designed the IFO
[Indoor Flying Object]—Dan Kreigh—is
one of our best engineers. I hired him
because he was a modeler.
And Dave Ganzer, he works at Paul
MacCready’s company [AeroVironment]
now, and he’s a very good engineer. I
hired him also because he was a modeler.
MA: What skills would today’s
aeromodeler need to possess to aspire to a
career in full-scale aircraft development
and construction?
BR: Lockheed [for instance] goes out and
looks for skills. They are looking for
someone who can follow detailed
blueprints, not for someone who is a
craftsman. And then they train him on how
to lay up composites. But I want to start
with someone who is a good craftsman.
MA: You’ve designed a piston-poweredairplane that has flown around the world
nonstop, a jet-powered airplane that has
flown nonstop around the world, and a
vehicle that has flown into space. What is the
next challenge for you?
BR: I’ve got a lot of stuff going on at Scaled
Composites right now. The challenge that I
can talk about, just because [Richard]
Branson has been talking about it, is that we
are developing a commercial, “fly the public”
spaceship. And we’ll be building a lot of
them. This isn’t a prototype program; we’re
going to build a lot of spaceships!
And there will be spaceports all over the
place. And their operating cost will be such
that it will reach millions of people and
enable them to fly outside the atmosphere. So
that’s a big deal.
MA: You are certainly a unique, out-of-thebox
thinker when it comes to aircraft design.
Are there any designers whose work you
particularly admire?
BR: Certainly Wernher Von Braun, [Sergei]
Korolev—he was Von Braun’s equivalent in
Russia—Kelly Johnson, Howard Hughes. I’m
getting the Howard Hughes award in a couple
of weeks.
I made a list for Aviation Week
[magazine]. They asked me to list what were
the most important things in the first 100
years of powered flight. This was the 100th
anniversary of the Wright brothers’ powered
flight.
I thought up nine people and wrote them
down. And I wrote that article and turned it
in. And then I started working on this idea
that is not unique, but it really hit me hard that
what people do with their lives has a lot to do
with what they’re exposed to when they’re
kids from 4 years to 14 years old.
And I looked back at this list and I found
out that every single one of those nine people
was a little kid when the airplane had
blossomed from nothing in 1908, to
thousands of pilots, hundreds of airplanes, in
39 countries in only four years. So this thing
really blossomed up; out of all the millions of
kids, the ones who were inspired were that
age.
I was inspired by some phenomenal
increase in activity after World War II. I was
born in ’43. The sound barrier was broken
when I was a young kid, and the Jet Age
came in, the Missile Age, and all the records
and so on just went skyrocketing. I think that
my exposure to that had a lot to do with the
reason that I’ve had the courage to go out and
try new things.
The problem is kids now are being bored.
Cell phones with pictures in them does not
really stroke their passion for exploration and
creativity. I don’t think that does it.
And there are so many kids that can’t do
anything with their hands and they think that
inventing something new is some different
piece of software. You look at [Bill] Gates,
who has made all his money because he
cornered the market on some operating
system and, you know, I’m bothered by that.
That’s not right.
Well, the thing is, you still have kids who
go out and do it, but you’ve got to remember
they are the ones that are going to take us to
the stars. Not the kids that will only buy
something packaged.
MA: In closing, what words of
encouragement or inspiration would you like
to leave our members with?
BR: You know, try to come up to the [AMA]
Nationals. Try to come up with something
where you award breakthroughs—new ideas.
Try to do that. You can’t predict a
breakthrough so it’s kind of hard to say, but
recognize that somebody did something that’s
a new idea and took the courage to fly it.
MA: Thanks, Burt. MA
Sources:
Burt Rutan
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan.html
www.scaled.com/
www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
www.isepp.org/Pages/02-03%20Pages/
Rutan-2.html
www.space.com/news/050727_branson_ru
tan.html
The Ansari X Prize www.xprize.org/
about/what_is_the_xprize.php
The Indoor Flying Object (IFO)
www.hobby-lobby.com/ifo.htm
www.wildrc.com/htmlpages/designer.html