Pilot Dies in Crash of Kit Plane on Maiden Flight
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From Staff and Wire Reports
A project engineer with aviation designer Burt Rutan’s private space program was killed when a kit airplane he had spent years building crashed during takeoff on its maiden flight.
David Robert Thompson, 38, was leaving Mountain Valley Airport on Sunday morning when the single-engine plane fell back onto the runway and burst into flames. His wife and two children were among the witnesses.
The cause of the crash was not known.
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