It was... 
the least I could do.
But I need... 
to wet my beak...
Speaking of beaks, I offered Burt... 
six franchises in Terre Haute.
But Colonel, that's... 
obscene!
Not... 
if you like chicken!
Posted on 07/20/2007 6:57:21 PM PDT by saganite
LOS ANGELES: Northrop Grumman Corp. has agreed to buy the company that built the first private manned rocket to reach space, it was announced Friday.
Northrop earlier this month agreed to increase its stake in Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites LLC from 40 percent to 100 percent, said company spokesman Dan McClain.
Northrop, a major defense contractor, would not disclose the value of the deal, which still needs regulatory approval.
"We went from a partial owner to the owner of the company," McClain said.
Northrop and Scaled said the new ownership would not affect Scaled's operations. Maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan will remain at the helm of Scaled and the management team will remain intact, McClain said.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
That or they made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Hope this is a win win deal.
Rutan is only providing the hardware to Branson. Scaled composites is seperate from Branson’s operation. It’s like Boeing vs Delta. Rutan must have realized he neede more resources at his disposal to achieve his follow on goal, an orbital capability as opposed to the suborbital ship hes building. I hope he doesn’t get shuffled aside in the process.
I’m less than 20 miles from where the company is based and know a lot of people that work there.
They are still building the “space ships” for Virgin Galactic. Northrop is buying the company that provides these ships to Virgin Galactic. Just like how Boeing sales aircraft to many airlines.
Actually the Spaceship One program is only a small amount of the work this company does. They do a lot of other government work that is mostly classified. I have heard rumors of what some of it is, but I would never put it in writing, especially on the Internet. We don’t want the “bad guys” to know what they might be up against in the future.
Both companies said the ownership will also have no effect on Scaled's partnership with Virgin Galactic, a space travel company founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson that is selling suborbital space rides for $200,000 (€144,900) a piece. Branson has ordered a fleet of commercial suborbital spaceships under development by Scaled.
It was... the least I could do.
But I need... to wet my beak...
Speaking of beaks, I offered Burt... six franchises in Terre Haute.
But Colonel, that's... obscene!
Not... if you like chicken!
You’re likely talking about going to Mars; Ma and Pa can’t do that on their own...
I don’t think Burt aspires to going to Mars. He’s working on the requirement for Branson’s suborbital program and his (Rutan’s) desire to build a truly orbital spaceship which would help fulfill the requirement for low cost access to near space. With Bigelow’s success at building space habitats that would provide access to near space. Rutan has definite opinions about NASA and it’s space program but to my knowledge he’s never proposed that he could build a Mars type vehicle. That’s for next year. ;^)
Yeah, well Burt sold out once before to the big guys and that marriage did not last. The Beech/Starship deal was a disaster when the big corp. designers got their hands on it.
Burt will get fed up with this deal too as he is not a corporate guy.
The FAA screwed up the Starship, not Burt ot Beech.
How so?
The FAA mandated additional structural requiremants that added to the weight of the aircraft that reduced performance and required a 2 man crew as opposed to 1.
Rutan probably will get shunted aside. That’s the way big corporations work. Buy a startup company with a good idea & the entrepreneur gets it in the neck. Either that or Rutan will wake-up one day and realize that he doesn’t like working for a major corporation.
I know Rutan doesn’t like working for anyone else. I’m guessing he sold the company because he plans to move on. He never really works well with others and he must have something else in mind that he wants to do.
Gee I don't know about that, not in this case. If it were some startup by who knows who; then yea, I could see that.
But Burt is a proven designer who has repeatedly shown he can think outside the box, and build some astonishing aerospace craft.
There used to be a guy by the name of Northrop, that thought that way.
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