Legendary aircraft (and spaceship) designer Burt Rutan was in a celebratory mood Nov. 24, dispatching an email to friends that had been a long time coming: the first flight of SkiGull, the forty-seventh aircraft designed and built by Rutan or one of his companies, completed a successful maiden flight in Idaho Nov. 23. Read Full Article »
During his pre-first-flight briefing Monday, Burt Rutan said the most fun one can have at an airport is to watch the first flight of a totally new airplane design. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan has started testing his latest airplane design, the SkiGull, an amphibious design he says will be his last. This week, the legendary airplane designer took the airplane to Hayden Lake for some early water testing. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan has started testing his latest airplane design, the SkiGull, an amphibious design he says will be his last. This week, the legendary airplane designer took the airplane to Hayden Lake for some early water testing. Read Full Article »
HAYDEN — After two years evolving and building his 47th unique aircraft, SkiGull, Burt Rutan towed it to Bob Williams’ beach next to Honeysuckle on Hayden Lake Sunday for a series of water taxi tests that were conducted Sunday evening and Monday. Read Full Article »
Mike Kincaid sent us this photo taken during the initial water-taxi tests of Burt Rutan’s latest creation, the SkiGull. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan always draws a crowd at his AirVenture forums, especially when introducing a new aircraft design. And since his current project, the SkiGull amphibian, may be the “retired” 72-year-old designer’s last homebuilt, the standing-room-only crowd at this year’s Oshkosh was all ears as he broke his long-standing rule of keeping a new design under wraps until it has flown. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan, who retired from his company Scaled Composites in 2010 only to announce he is building a new airplane in his garage, provided some details regarding the progress on what he has named the SkiGull. Read Full Article »
Attendees at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association’s weeklong AirVenture last week celebrated the accomplishments of world-renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan. Read Full Article »
What better place than AirVenture for Burt Rutan to unveil his last homebuilt aircraft design (he says), to a standing room audience of Homebuilders. Read Full Article »
In this age of derivatives and faceless design-by-committee, a new film is aiming to tell the story of the most famous aircraft designer of the modern age – the legendary Burt Rutan. Tim Robinson asks whether it can inspire the next generation of creative designers and engineers. Read Full Article »
Thanks to a Kickstarter documentary film project, the curtain is slowly being raised on what famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan says will be his last airplane, dubbed the SkiGull.During interviews conducted for the film, titled “Looking Up, Way Up! The Burt Rutan Story,” the man who designed the SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo rocket planes as well as their motherships says he and his wife intend to fly the SkiGull around the world. And because it will run on the same type of fuel used in cars and boats, they won’t have to limit their stopovers to airports. Read Full Article »
EVEN IN RETIREMENT, Burt Rutan keeps working, and the legendary aeronautics designer is up to something cool.When Rutan retired to Idaho in 2011 after a lifetime designing revolutionary airplanes, he dreamed of flying around the world with his wife, Tonya—but soon realized that if he wanted an airplane capable of making the trip the way he imagined it, he’d have to design it himself. He’s spent the past few years in his garage, creating an airplane capable of landing on rough seas, calm lakes, snow, or grass. It also runs on gasoline instead of aviation fuel. Read Full Article »
The filmmakers who traced the rise of the SpaceShipOne rocket plane are now turning their focus to its designer’s next high-flying project — which is currently taking shape in his garage. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan may have retired from his aerospace company Scaled Composites five years ago, but the 71-year-old aviation legend is far from done when it comes to working on new innovations. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan recently unveiled preliminary details about his brand new aircraft design, a rugged two-seater outfitted with a retractable ski system that will allow the airplane to operate in rough waves around the world, both in fresh and saltwater alike. Read Full Article »
Legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan’s latest project is the SkiGull, a seaplane that’s currently undergoing initial hydro testing. Read Full Article »
Burt Rutan is the most famous aircraft designer of the modern era. From Voyager, the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, to Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipOne, Burt’s known for designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy efficient aircraft. And better yet, after 367 concepts and 45 flying aircraft, he’s still at it. Read Full Article »
If you’ve been around aviation and airplanes for any amount of time, you’ve undoubtedly heard the name Burt Rutan. I recently received a press release from antennaFILMS about a documentary titled, “Looking Up, Way Up! the Burt Rutan Story”. Read Full Article »
Scott B and Sandy Guthrie of antennaFILMS released details about Burt Rutan’s visionary new plane and as part of the current Kickstarter campaign for their documentary Looking Up, Way Up! the Burt Rutan Story. The film will explore the aerospace legend’s astonishing career through the lens of Rutan’s current project making of this new, groundbreaking aircraft. Read Full Article »
SkiGull, the new airplane homebuilding-icon Burt Rutan is building in his garage in Couer d’Alene, Idaho, will be powered by a 130 hp modified version of a Rotax engine. antennaFILMS, which is currently filming a documentary titled, “Looking Up, Way Up! The Burt Rutan Story,” quotes Rutan, “The design was recently changed to use a modified version of a certified Rotax engine (turbo, e-fuel injection, flight-adjustable prop, 130 max BHP). Read Full Article »
Legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan works on the SkiGull, and his plan for one last grand adventure.Burt Rutan “barely leaves the garage” these days, according to a film producer working on a documentary about the legendary aircraft designer’s life and work. The product of those 12-hour days in the garage of his Idaho home may prove to be an extraordinary final chapter in a storied career. Read Full Article »
Details are beginning to surface regarding the airplane Burt Rutan is creating, an aircraft mentioned in a recent EAA story about a documentary currently being produced about the iconic aircraft designer. Read Full Article »
It’s no secret that legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan has been at work on a seaplane during his retirement in Idaho, but now the airplane is getting close to first flight and new details have been released about the design. Read Full Article »
From aircraft homebuilders to would-be space travelers, aviation devotees travel innumerable paths. One point of intersection on many of those journeys is a connection with aviation inventor Burt Rutan, whose visionary designs have become the gateway to flight for countless pilots. Read Full Article »
antennaFILMS, the Producing/Directing team behind the award-winning television documentary Black Sky about X-Prize winning SpaceShipOne, has signed on to produce a documentary that follows Aerospace Legend Burt Rutan that will highlight the maverick designer’s vast accomplishments, the legacy he created in the field of aviation and his newest “secret garage” venture. Read Full Article »