Burt Rutan is truly one of the great figures in aviation.

Makes me reflect on how non-glorious engineering can be. The general press
focuses on the pilot/astronaut when the genius is in the engineering. Dick
Rutan got the same treatment.

Nothing wrong or new about it, just interesting.

I guess the space program always received the same treatment. The
apochropyhl (sp) movie story about Werner Von Braun saying the astronauts
were no more than ballast showed who the real heros are. or not.

Rutan is the man!

"Thomas J. Paladino Jr." wrote in message
. ..
For those of you who didn't see his pre-event press conference, a large
part
of it is available on MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5236958/ (scroll down to 'free video').

He is a truly inspirational figure; a real pioneer. Not since Kelly
Johnson
or Robert Goddard has a single man done more to push aviation foward, and
I
hope he continues for many more years to come.