[AFreeBird]

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.

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.

[Tallguy]

I was generalizing, of course. But I wonder if Northrop Grumman really shares the same vision as Burt Rutan (ie. low-cost access to space)? Time will tell.