Word: rutan
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...mission came about through the faith of three principals: the two pilots, Dick Rutan, 48, and Jeana Yeager, 34; and Rutan's brother Burt, 43, who designed the plane. Burt Rutan, one of the U.S.'s most innovative designers, is president of his own firm, Rutan Aircraft Factory; Dick is a gaunt and prickly pilot par excellence, much decorated for his 325 combat missions in Viet Nam, who had been chafing as a test flyer for his younger brother; Yeager, Dick's constant companion, is a shy, petite former engineering-design draftsman who holds nine world flight records after just...
...next five years, the three set out to raise enough money to design, build and fly Voyager. The project took shape in Hangar 77 at Mojave Airport; the plane was put together by dedicated volunteers and a few paid workers who were determined to assemble a dream. Dick Rutan became the driving force; two years ago he bought out his brother's half interest in the plane. He is proud that the group is accomplishing its mission without one cent of Government money...
...motor. (Voyager actually has two engines, one at each end of the fuselage; the forward motor was used only for extra power on takeoff and during maneuvering.) But a small motor means a slow plane -- the average speed on last week's run was only 103 m.p.h. -- so Burt Rutan included a canard, the extra wing at the front of the fuselage that is his trademark. Reason: If a plane flies too slowly, its wings lose lift, causing it to stall and perhaps crash. But the canard is tilted more steeply than the main wing, so it loses lift first...
...Dick Rutan is particularly proud of the team that assembled and maintained the craft. "It was done by individual Americans," he says, "and not by a corporation and not by a government." Although corporate sponsors provided equipment and expertise, much of the project's financing came from private donations. Among the volunteers who worked seven-day-a-week shifts setting up mission control, weather and communications systems and making last minute preparations were retired pilots in their 50s, 60s and even...
...rewards of a globe-circling flight are greater, so are the dangers. Rutan and Yeager will face nearly two weeks of cramped conditions, 95% of the course will be over water, and the plane is bound to run into more turbulent weather than it encountered over the California coastline. But Rutan was ready to talk about the next flight before last week's had been completed. Still over the Pacific Ocean, just west of San Francisco, he radioed, "This time we really had our act together, and we know we're ready...