Photo: Steve Paluch / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)

Burt Rutan

バート・ルータン　/　ばーと・るーたん

American military flight engineer

June 17, 1943 (age 82)　・　Estacada, Oregon, United States

Oregon
military flight engineer
inventor
aircraft pilot

My Take

Burt Rutan strikes me as a genuine original, the rare engineer whose aircraft look as radical as the ideas behind them. The Voyager flying around the world nonstop and unrefueled in 1986 still sounds borderline impossible, and that single feat would have made a career. But the wall of honors, the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal, tells me he kept pushing boundaries for decades. What I admire most is the obsession with light, efficient, unconventional design. From small-town Oregon and Cal Poly, he became someone who genuinely reshaped how people imagine flight, both atmospheric and beyond.

Overview

Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is an American retired aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the record-breaking Voyager, which in 1986 was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1. Profile

Name (English): Burt Rutan
Name (Japanese): バート・ルータン
Reading: ばーと・るーたん
Born: June 17, 1943 (age 82)
Zodiac / Chinese zodiac: Gemini / Goat
Origin: Estacada, Oregon, United States
Blood type: Private
Height: Private
Agency: Private
Occupation: military flight engineer / inventor / aircraft pilot / entrepreneur / engineer

2. Background

Elementary school: Private
Junior high: Private
High school: Private
University: California Polytechnic State University

Awards & achievements

Presidential Citizens Medal
2011 Daniel Guggenheim Medal
1995 National Aviation Hall of Fame
2007 honorary doctorate of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel
2005 J. C. Hunsaker Award in Aeronautical Engineering
2007 NSS Wernher Von Braun Memorial Award
2015 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy

3. Relationships

Spouse: Private
Children: Private
Parents: Private
Siblings: Private

4. Personality

Motto

Private

6. Links

Official sitehttps://www.burtrutan.com/
Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BF%E3%83%B3

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