Burt Rutan retiring soon?

[FutureSpaceTourist]

According to http://www.parabolicarc.com/2010/08/28/burt-rutan-retirement-leave-mojave/:

Rutan is putting his Mojave home on the market and plans to move to a spread in Idaho with his wife, Tonya, according to several reliable sources who would not speak for attribution.

Asked about these reports today, Rutan replied in an email: “I plan to put out a general release on the subject after I make retirement plans. Once I have decided what to do I will post it at Scaled and other sites.”

I guess there have been several things leading up to this in recent years:

• Completion of sale of Scaled to Northrop Grumman
• Doug Shane taking over day-to-day running of Scaled
• Burt's heart problems (operation was very successful but may have changed his personal priorities)
• Burt being much more hands-off in the design of WK2 and SS2

If the report is true then he's had quite a career! Happy retirement Burt.

 

[Stargazer]

Gosh! You're keeping up-to-date really well with all things Rutan! Would you consider giving a helping hand with my STARGAZER site?

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Burt has now announced his plan to retire in April 2011 (see http://www.scaled.com/images/uploads/news/Burt_Rutan_Announces_Retirement_Plans_03Nov10.pdf).

Virgin Galactic has said it's known about his plans for a while and there'll be no impact to the SpaceShipTwo program (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/03/AR2010110305396.html).

 

[Stargazer]

40 years of designing, building and successfully flying the most uncanny aircraft with no preconceived ideas and no strings attached... A life well spent!

 

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Here's an interesting article about Burt doing one last design:

[quote author=http://www.tehachapinews.com/content/aero-giant-working-his-last-design/33801]
Burt Rutan, founder of Scaled Composites and a giant in the aero design world, is working on one last aircraft before he retires to Idaho.

“There will be one more Burt Rutan design before I retire in April,” he told hundreds of guests Feb. 19 at a Tehachapi High School Cyber Penguins Robotics Team fundraiser chili cookoff in the Tehachapi High School cafeteria. “I can’t tell you anything about it until it’s flying.”

[...]

Rutan said people ask him which is his favorite, and his standard answer has been “The next one.”

But he’s changed his answer, he said.

SpaceShipOne holds the No. 1 place in his heart.

[...]

He said it has been nine years since he personally designed an airplane that Scaled Composites built, and that he has learned to “kind of let go.”
[/quote]

 

[Stargazer]

I read some other article last week which stated clearly that Burt was working on a final design which would become his own personal aircraft once completed.

 

[quellish]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rutan-retirement-20110401,0,1938565.story

 

[cluttonfred]

Anyone have any leads on what that "last" design might be?