Burt Rutan Retires From Scaled Composites

hondo77 writes "Lost in all of the April Fool's Day fun was the news that Burt Rutan retired on April 1. 'Five of his planes now hang in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, including the Voyager, which in 1986 became the first airplane to fly around the world without refueling, and SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 became the first private rocket plane ever to put a man into space.' Enjoy your retirement, Burt. You've earned it." Watching SpaceShipOne fly in 2004 is one of the happiest memories of my life. Thanks, Mr. Rutan.

Re:There are few aircraft designers left

[Have Brain Will Rent]

"To bring it back home, would you expect Dennis Ritchie to be able to fabricate a modern GPU in his garage?"

Yes. Yes I would.