The man is an aeronautical genius who gets ZERO credit for his work. These are the kinds of people who need to be held up as role models and heros, not Hollywierd types like Lohan and sport people like Vick. If kids growing up, and even MANY adults, used people like Rutan as their role models, this country would not be so far behind in the sciences.
Burt gets credit from the people who know.
We had him down to give a talk at the main Northrop Grumman plant at El Segundo (near LAX). Wonderful talk, nice sense of humor.
I knew him when I was at Edwards AFB. I visited Scaled just last Tuesday. He has a great corporate culture.