Dick Rutan
Encyclopedia
Richard Glenn "Dick" Rutan (born July 1, 1938) is an aviator
who piloted the Voyager aircraft around the world non-stop with co-pilot Jeana Yeager
. He was born in Loma Linda, California
, where he gained an interest in flight at a young age.
Aviation Cadet Program at age 19 and later becoming a lieutenant in the Air Force. Rutan served during the Vietnam War
with the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phu Cat Air Base
, completing 325 combat missions. 105 came while serving as a "Fast FAC" (Misty 40) with Project Commando Sabre, Detachment 1 of the 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, the second highest total of sorties flown by the 157 Misty pilots. On August 17, 1967, his Misty tour ended when his F-100F
was shot down, although he and his back-seat pilot were both rescued. He ejected a second time when the aircraft he was flying over England experienced engine failure. Through his career, he was awarded the Silver Star
, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medal
s, and a Purple Heart
.
. It was during a 1981 lunch meeting at California's Mojave Inn that the Voyager project was conceived: Dick and Jeana Yeager
met with Burt Rutan
to discuss their idea of starting an aviation company. During lunch, they spoke of creating an aircraft that could fly nonstop around the world. Burt, an aircraft designer, sketched on a napkin the plane design that would enable Dick and Jeana Yeager
to break the flight distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 kilometers) set by a B-52 Stratofortress
bomber
in 1962. To realize Burt's design, they assembled a team of more than 50 and refined — over the next six years — Burt's original design, a process which included testing and studying a variety of lightweight materials. The team eventually selected a combination of graphite
, fiberglass
, and Kevlar
for Voyager's main structure.
Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager took off in Voyager on December 14, 1986 from Edwards Air Force Base
's 15000 feet (4,572 m) runway. They struggled throughout the flight with weather
, stress
, and the continuing demand for fuel
. They were even denied access to the airspace
above Libya
. Finally, after 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds of flight, they touched down on December 23 with only a few gallons of fuel remaining. The 24,986-mile (40,211 km) trip yielded Rutan and Yeager numerous awards.
, but failed in that attempt. In 1997 Dick and Mike Melvill
flew around the world in two Rutan Long-EZ
aircraft, with some legs of the trip extending over 14 hrs. in length.
against Democratic congressman George Brown, Jr.
in California's 42nd congressional district. The district comprised most of the San Bernardino
region of southern California and was viewed as a swing district. In the Republican primary, Rutan upset San Bernardino County
Supervisor Rob Hammock, who had run a strong race against Brown in 1990. In the general election, Rutan ran on a platform that called for reforming congress and lowering taxes. Brown, first elected in 1962, was long known for surviving close elections and prevailed once more with 79,780 votes (50.7%) to Rutan's 69,251 (44%). Fritz Ward, a Libertarian
, received 8,424 votes or 5.3% of the vote. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1992/92Stat.htm#5
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
who piloted the Voyager aircraft around the world non-stop with co-pilot Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager is an aviator. She is most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft from 14 to 23 December 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles , more than doubling the old distance record set by...
. He was born in Loma Linda, California
Loma Linda, California
Loma Linda is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, that was incorporated in 1970. The population was 23,261 at the 2010 census, up from 18,681 at the 2000 census...
, where he gained an interest in flight at a young age.
Air Force service
He soon began a military career, joining the Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
Aviation Cadet Program at age 19 and later becoming a lieutenant in the Air Force. Rutan served during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
with the 37th Tactical Fighter Wing at Phu Cat Air Base
Phu Cat Air Base
Phu Cat Air Base is a Vietnam People's Air Force military airfield in Vietnam. It is located northwest of Qui Nhon in Binh Dinh Province....
, completing 325 combat missions. 105 came while serving as a "Fast FAC" (Misty 40) with Project Commando Sabre, Detachment 1 of the 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, the second highest total of sorties flown by the 157 Misty pilots. On August 17, 1967, his Misty tour ended when his F-100F
F-100 Super Sabre
The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard until 1979. The first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of...
was shot down, although he and his back-seat pilot were both rescued. He ejected a second time when the aircraft he was flying over England experienced engine failure. Through his career, he was awarded the Silver Star
Silver Star
The Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medal
Air Medal
The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States. The award was created in 1942, and is awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.-Criteria:...
s, and a Purple Heart
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
.
Voyager project
Following military service, Dick headed an aircraft company with his brother Burt RutanBurt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
. It was during a 1981 lunch meeting at California's Mojave Inn that the Voyager project was conceived: Dick and Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager is an aviator. She is most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft from 14 to 23 December 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles , more than doubling the old distance record set by...
met with Burt Rutan
Burt Rutan
Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft...
to discuss their idea of starting an aviation company. During lunch, they spoke of creating an aircraft that could fly nonstop around the world. Burt, an aircraft designer, sketched on a napkin the plane design that would enable Dick and Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager
Jeana Yeager is an aviator. She is most famous for co-piloting a non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft from 14 to 23 December 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles , more than doubling the old distance record set by...
to break the flight distance record of 12,532 miles (20,168 kilometers) set by a B-52 Stratofortress
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber operated by the United States Air Force since the 1950s. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, who have continued to provide maintainence and upgrades to the aircraft in service...
bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
in 1962. To realize Burt's design, they assembled a team of more than 50 and refined — over the next six years — Burt's original design, a process which included testing and studying a variety of lightweight materials. The team eventually selected a combination of graphite
Graphite
The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...
, fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
, and Kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
for Voyager's main structure.
Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager took off in Voyager on December 14, 1986 from Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base
Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County, Los Angeles County, and San Bernardino County, California, in the Antelope Valley. It is southwest of the central business district of North Edwards, California and due east of Rosamond.It is named in...
's 15000 feet (4,572 m) runway. They struggled throughout the flight with weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
, stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...
, and the continuing demand for fuel
Fuel
Fuel is any material that stores energy that can later be extracted to perform mechanical work in a controlled manner. Most fuels used by humans undergo combustion, a redox reaction in which a combustible substance releases energy after it ignites and reacts with the oxygen in the air...
. They were even denied access to the airspace
Airspace
Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....
above Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
. Finally, after 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds of flight, they touched down on December 23 with only a few gallons of fuel remaining. The 24,986-mile (40,211 km) trip yielded Rutan and Yeager numerous awards.
Other aviation projects
In 1990, Rutan attempted to repeat the round-the-world feat in a balloonBalloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
, but failed in that attempt. In 1997 Dick and Mike Melvill
Mike Melvill
Michael Winston "Mike" Melvill is one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 434th...
flew around the world in two Rutan Long-EZ
Rutan Long-EZ
-See also:-External links:****...
aircraft, with some legs of the trip extending over 14 hrs. in length.
Campaign for congress
In 1992 Rutan ran as a conservative RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
against Democratic congressman George Brown, Jr.
George Brown, Jr.
George Edward Brown, Jr. was an American politician. He was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1963 to 1971 and from 1973 to 1999, representing Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties in California.-Background:Brown was born in Holtville, California...
in California's 42nd congressional district. The district comprised most of the San Bernardino
San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California is a large city in the Inland Empire Metropolitan Area of Southern California.San Bernardino may also refer to:-Landforms:*San Bernardino , a torrent that flows through the Italian province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola...
region of southern California and was viewed as a swing district. In the Republican primary, Rutan upset San Bernardino County
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 2,035,210, up from 1,709,434 as of the 2000 census...
Supervisor Rob Hammock, who had run a strong race against Brown in 1990. In the general election, Rutan ran on a platform that called for reforming congress and lowering taxes. Brown, first elected in 1962, was long known for surviving close elections and prevailed once more with 79,780 votes (50.7%) to Rutan's 69,251 (44%). Fritz Ward, a Libertarian
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
, received 8,424 votes or 5.3% of the vote. http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1992/92Stat.htm#5
Records
Besides the records Rutan set while flying Voyager, he has also set a number in his personal LongEze, including:- FAIFédération Aéronautique InternationaleThe Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
class C1b distance over a closed course of 7,725.3 km at Mojave on December 15, 1979. - FAI class C1b distance of 7,344.56 km from Anchorage, AlaskaAnchorage, AlaskaAnchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
to Grand Turk IslandGrand Turk IslandGrand Turk Island is an island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. It is the largest island in the Turks Islands with . It contains the territory's capital, Cockburn Town and the JAGS McCartney International Airport...
on June 5, 1981.
Awards
- Silver StarSilver StarThe Silver Star is the third-highest combat military decoration that can be awarded to a member of any branch of the United States armed forces for valor in the face of the enemy....
- Distinguished Flying Cross, 5 times
- Air MedalAir MedalThe Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States. The award was created in 1942, and is awarded for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight.-Criteria:...
, 16 times - Purple HeartPurple HeartThe Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed while serving on or after April 5, 1917 with the U.S. military. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located in New Windsor, New York...
- 1981 - Louis Bleriot Award - distance record
- 1986 - Presidential Citizens MedalPresidential Citizens MedalThe Presidential Citizens Medal is the second highest civilian award in the United States, second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded by the President of the United States, and may be given posthumously....
from President Reagan - 1986 - Collier TrophyCollier TrophyThe Collier Trophy is an annual aviation award administered by the U.S. National Aeronautics Association , presented to those who have made "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space...
- 1986 - De la Vaulx MedalDe la Vaulx MedalThe De la Vaulx Medal is an aviation award presented by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , the international aviation standard setting and record-keeping body...
- 1987 - Collier Trophy
- 1987 - Louis Bleriot Award - around-the-world flight
- 1988 - Edward Longstreth Medal of the Franklin InstituteFranklin InstituteThe Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
- 2005 - Louis Bleriot Award - longest point-to-point rocket plane flight (XCOR EZ-RocketXCOR EZ-RocketThe XCOR EZ-Rocket is a test platform for the XCOR rocket propulsion system. The plane is a modified Rutan Long-EZ, with the propeller replaced by first one, then a pair of pressure-fed regeneratively cooled liquid-fuelled rocket engines and an underslung rocket-fuel tank. The engines are...
)