Voyager Designer Wins Rocket Flight License
Aviation engineer Burt Rutan, who made a nonstop flight around the world in 1986, won the first government license to make a suborbital manned rocket flight and qualify for a $10-million prize.
Rutan’s Scaled Composites plans to drop a ship from an aircraft at an altitude of 50,000 feet, about 10 miles, and fire a rocket motor to propel the craft as high as 62 miles, according to the company’s website.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 16, 2004 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday April 16, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 43 words Type of Material: Correction
Airplane designer -- An article in the Business section April 9 said that aviation designer Burt Rutan made a nonstop flight around the world in his Voyager plane in 1986. Although Rutan designed the pioneering aircraft, his brother, Dick Rutan, was the co-pilot.
The license is valid until April 1, said Hank Price, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. A Scaled Composites spokeswoman didn’t return a telephone call for comment. Rutan designed Voyager, a plane that made the first flight around the world without refueling.
