World’s Only Flying VariViggen Fifty-Years On
As Thomas Edison, Gottlieb Daimler, and Ron Popeil were to the furtherance of man’s terrestrial technologies, so Burt Rutan is to the advancement of humankind’s aeronautical endeavors. Rutan’s light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft—which the Los Angeles Times characterized as “ … taking on all types of sleek shapes and sizes, looking more like the work of a sculptor than an engineer—have won him accolades and acknowledgements the likes of: the NAA’s Collier and Wright Brothers Memorial Trophies, the NSS’s Von Braun and Robert A. Heinlein Awards, the Daniel Guggenheim Medal, the Bob Hoover Trophy, the Pre