rutan voyager engine

On December 23, 1986, nine days, three minutes, and 44 seconds after taking off, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager touched down at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, in the Rutan Voyager aircraft to finish the first flight around the world made without landing or refueling.  Rutan’s brother Burt had designed Voyager but it was the availability of carbon-fibers coated with epoxy allowing Burt to design an airframe that could lift more than ten times its flying weight (including 3,180 kg, 7,011 lb, of fuel) that made the flight even possible.  The ultra lightweight airframe, advanced technology propellers and engines, state-of-the-art navigation equipment, and a command center on the ground to radio continuous updates on the weather did little to make the flight comfortable for the crew.  Dick and Jeana had to take turns sitting at the controls in the cockpit and lying down in the “cabin” which is only .4 m (7 ft 6 in) long and about .6 m (2 ft) in diameter.  At least one engine was always operating and even earphones designed to cancel the noise hardly quieted the din.

Along with the incredible physical challenge was the constantly changing weather they faced as they made their way around the world.  In the end, Voyager performed flawlessly except for four minutes when the rear engine quit due to a fuel problem.   It was considered the “last” great aircraft record and indeed brothers Burt and Dick Rutan, and Jeana Yeager won the Collier Trophy , aviation’s most prestigious award, for the accomplishment.

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Voyager’s Nonstop Around-the-World Adventure

When Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager landed at California’s Edwards Air Force Base in the Rutan Voyager on December 23, 1986, they completed a historic flight that tested the limits of aircraft design and human endurance.   The pair had left Edwards on December 14, having spent nine days and three minutes in the air during their nonstop, unrefueled flight around the world—the first of its kind. Along the way they nearly came to grief several times, as they grappled with exhaustion, mechanical problems, severe weather and even political considerations.

Dick’s brother Burt had first sketched Voyager’s design on a paper napkin at a Mojave, Calif., res­taurant in 1981. Such an airplane—essentially a flying fuel tank—had been thought impossible.

The challenges Burt Rutan faced were daunting. He had to balance the necessary fuel capacity with the need for increased lift to overcome the fuel weight and higher induced drag. That required additional wing area, which in turn increased drag, compelling Rutan to use a high-aspect-ratio wing—long span and narrow chord—and enormously complicating the structural design.

The wing he needed could not be built without the aid of carbon composites, which boasted a strength-to-weight ratio seven times greater than that of steel. At the time Voyager was the largest composite aircraft ever to fly.

Construction of Voyager in the Rutan hangar at Mojave took two years of day and night work by a team of dedicated volunteers. Over the next three years, the airplane made 67 test flights, revealing serious operational issues. During a three-day flight, Dick and Jeana found the interior noise level generated by the tandem-mounted, push-pull engines almost unendurable, threatening permanent hearing loss, so the team added active-noise-suppression headsets. On another flight the electric propeller pitch-control motor on the front engine shorted out. Before it could be shut down, the engine shook off its mounts and the propeller departed. The only thing that saved Voyager and its crew was a flexible strap holding the engine to the fuselage.

Heading to Oshkosh, Wisc., in 1984 for the Experi­mental Aircraft Association fly-in, Voyager encountered a rainstorm that reduced lift from its wide canard to the point where the airplane kept losing altitude no matter what Dick tried. “I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach,” he said, “as the airplane was coming down, and I couldn’t stop it.” Voyager emerged from the storm and regained lift just in time to avoid the terrain ahead. To fix the problem, team members installed tiny vortex generators on the canard that smoothed the airflow. Solving these and other issues occupied the next two years.  

Preparations for the around-the-world flight involved numerous additional tasks, such as securing the many overflight clearances required, studying regional weather patterns and setting up global communications relays. The support team included recognized experts in such fields as meteor­ology, communications, instrumentation and control engineering.  

Burt Rutan’s design was precisely tailored to the mission, but Dick and Jeana learned that with a high fuel load Voyager was barely flyable. The long-span, unusually flexible wings went from a pronounced droop at the start of takeoff to a hawk-like upward curve as they generated lift. The transition from takeoff to climb had to be flown with knife-edge accuracy to avoid dangerous wing oscillations. Designer and pilots knew Voyager was fundamentally unsafe. “This thing flies like a turkey vulture,” Dick said.  

In order to save weight, the airplane’s fuel system—16 individual tanks and two pumps (one per side) transferring fuel into a single central tank feeding both the forward and rear engines—was not equipped with automatic valves or individual fuel pumps. Hence keeping Voyager within center-of-gravity limits was a continuous burden, mostly on Jeana, who kept a meticulous fuel transfer record.

To reach its maximum range, Voyager had to maintain a best lift-over-drag attitude, with a specific constant angle of attack for each speed. Burt’s carefully planned vertical profile specified the speed for each successive stage as fuel weight diminished. On a flight lasting over a week, that task required an autopilot.

On the morning of December 14, Voyager was loaded with 7,011.5 pounds of fuel, 15 percent more than on its heaviest previous flight. The aircraft’s gross takeoff weight was 9,694.5 pounds, supported by an airframe that weighed just 939 pounds. The landing gear was designed to handle that one-time load on takeoff, which would be made from Edwards’ 15,000-foot runway.

Team members pumped air into the gear struts to provide a bit more clearance for Voyager’s drooping wings, then added more fuel to the forward tanks. Those actions slightly twisted the wings forward and down, inadvertently setting the stage for a potential disaster. In anticipation of the extra weight, the tires were inflated to a pressure of 3,200 psi, almost twice the rated maximum.

The halfway point on the runway, at 7,500 feet, was the agreed abort point in the event Voyager hadn’t reached the required 83 knots to begin rotation. As Voyager lumbered down the runway just after 8 a.m., it was still four knots short when it reached that point. Over the radio, Burt yelled, “Dick, pull the stick back, dammit!” But knowing he didn’t have adequate speed for liftoff and refusing to abort, Dick left the throttles wide open, staking their lives on that crucial decision. “The airplane was accelerating smoothly,” he later said, “and the end of the runway was still a mile and a half ahead.”

Dick was unaware that the extra fuel weight had caused the wingtips to scrape the runway, and that the outboard wing sections were now generating negative lift. Voyager was at the 11,000-foot point when it reached 83 knots, but still Dick didn’t rotate; a premature attempt at liftoff might fracture the wings between the inner sections generating lift and the outer sections still under downward pressure from negative lift. He held the airplane on the runway until Jeana called “87 knots,” and only then began to ease back on the stick as the assembled crowd screamed “Pull up, pull up!” Voyager finally lifted off 14,200 feet down the runway, a mere 800 feet from the end. “One hundred knots,” Jeana called out, as Voyager reached 100 feet altitude. “We needed the extra lift from ground effect—within our 110-foot wingspan—which I used to boost our airspeed to the climb target,” Dick explained.

The scraped wingtips were damaged to the point where they were soon shed, leaving tattered foam and loose wires exposed at the ends. How close was the wingtip damage to the fuel tanks? Could a leak have been started? Could the exposed wires cause a short during a storm? Nobody knew, so Voyager simply flew westward. Early in the flight, the overburdened airplane burned fuel so fast that a pound of fuel yielded less than two miles of flight distance.  

One hour into the flight, Voyager was 7,400 feet above the Pacific. The aircraft’s inherent instability would continue to pose a threat even after it was safe to turn on the autopilot. Dick had to be at the controls in case significant oscillations began that the autopilot couldn’t immediately correct. Although Jeana had a few hundred hours of flying experience, she hadn’t yet learned how to prevent those dangerous oscillations, which could break up the airplane while it was so fuel-heavy. Jeana looked out the cockpit window and exclaimed, “See the wings! They’re almost flapping.”

For the next three days, Dick stayed at the controls. His lack of adequate sleep set the stage for new dangers ahead. Jeana’s neck grew stiff as she lay on her side watching the instruments while Dick catnapped. “He needed the rest,” she said, “so I had to monitor what the airplane was doing, and reach around him to make any adjustments.”  

After passing Hawaii, they entered the Inter­tropical Convergence Zone, with high-altitude westerly winds and low-altitude easterly winds. Voyager stayed at 7,500 feet, along the five-degree north parallel, an area of frequent storm activity. As they approached Guam, the weather guru at Mission Control in Mojave, Len Snell­man, warned the crew about a large typhoon just to the southeast. Voyager was able to pick up some tailwind from the typhoon’s counterclockwise circulation by skirting it on the north side. That tailwind would provide an important gain in fuel savings.

From about mid-Pacific all the way to Africa, the crew and Mission Control became increasingly concerned about the rate of fuel consumption indicated by Jeana’s log. For reasons unknown, possibly leaks from the wingtip damage, there might not be enough fuel to complete the mission. They began to actively consider possible emergency landing sites. Dick remembered “a sinking feeling in my stomach; I wanted to cry. We were looking at failure.”  

Overflying Sri Lanka, with its 10,000-foot runway, Dick felt so tired he could hardly resist the temptation to land. But his mother’s words, “If you can dream it, you can do it,” ran through his mind, and he knew Jeana wanted to fly on, so they did. Later, Jeana discovered a reverse flow of fuel from the feeder tank back to the selected fuel tank. Dick guessed the amount was insufficient to drain the feeder tank and stop the engine, but there was no way to know for sure.  

Voyager approached the African coast well south of Somalia (for which they had no overflight clearance) on a moonless dark night. Jeana was at the controls while Dick slept in the rear compartment. Fuel was still a concern, so she ran the rear engine lean. Their radar revealed a storm ahead, just south of their course. Jeana awakened Dick, and as he got into the cockpit they were at the edge of the storm. They were through the turbulence in a few minutes, about to start across a continent with few airfields and a sky full of storm clouds.

Voyager was over western Kenya, on its planned course, heading for Lake Victoria and cumulus buildups, with mountainous terrain beyond. They were five hours late for an inflight rendezvous with Doug Shane, who had flown by airline to Kenya and rented a Beech Baron in order to observe Voyager up close to see if the wingtip damage had caused fuel leaks requiring a mission abort. Voyager already was climbing to avoid Mt. Kenya and other peaks ahead over 17,000 feet. Shane was nearing the Baron’s ceiling, with only a few minutes to approach Voyager and inspect for fuel leaks in the early morning light. “No ugly blue streaks,” he called. Relieved to know Voyager was not leaking fuel, they climbed to 20,500 feet to clear the mountains ahead.  

this article first appeared in AVIATION HISTORY magazine

Dehydration and equally insidious hypoxia threatened their survival. Neither Dick nor Jeana had managed to drink enough fluid to replenish their losses flying so high. Nor were they breathing 100-percent oxygen, required for that altitude, because earlier Dick had dialed it back to conserve their supply. Dick could see Jeana’s reflection in the radar screen; she was curled up like a cat, sleeping soundly—too soundly. Dick called, “Jeana, wake up! Wake up!” while reaching back to shake her. “What, what?” she finally responded, then quickly fell back asleep. Soon after, Dick said, “Jeana, look at this,” shaking her awake again. “Look at the instrument panel! It’s bulging out; it may explode!” “It’s o.k., Dick,” she reassured him, “you’re just tired. I’ll take care of it.” As Voyager descended to 14,000 feet, Dick’s hallucinations stopped. Jeana squeezed past him and took the controls. Her head was pounding with a migraine headache. “My stomach was churning, I started vomiting into my little throw-up bag,” she said. “I just kept flying; Dick was in worse shape.”

Night overtook them as Jeana let Dick sleep longer than planned because of his extreme fatigue. After he was back at the controls, Dick realized they were very late for the course change to avoid Mt. Cameroon. “Why didn’t you wake me?” he yelled. “There’s a mountain out there and we almost ran into it.” “So, why didn’t you remind me of it?” Jeana replied.

Clearing Africa, the two fliers experienced an overwhelming sense of relief. Looking at Dick, “I saw big tears rolling down his cheeks,” Jeana remembered. “I reached over his shoulder and gave him a hug.”

On crossing the South Atlantic, things took a turn for the worse. As Voyager approached the coast of Brazil, Mission Control lacked weather satellite data and could not provide adequate guidance for the location. With bad weather ahead, Dick was forced to thread his way through an area of dense thunderstorms, in the dark. Their radar showed storm cells close ahead, at right, left and center. Turbulence tossed Voyager like a cork, and a cell swallowed the aircraft. One wing was forced high and the other low as the aircraft quickly went into a 90-degree bank. Voyager was about to go inverted. “Well babe, this is it, I think we’ve bought the farm this time,” Dick said. “Look at the attitude indicator. We ain’t gonna make it.” Jeana stayed quiet.  

The cell ejected Voyager, but it was still far over on its side—an attitude out of a bad dream. Dick knew the only way to recover was to unload the G-force on the wings and regain airspeed, and only after that gently roll back level while ensuring airspeed didn’t build too rapidly to recover. “We never banked Voyager over 20 degrees before,” Dick noted. “I’d rather go back across Africa than tangle with one of these storms again.” Mission Control was soon getting better weather satellite coverage and helping the crew find the safest way through the remaining storm cells.

After the adrenaline wore off, Dick desperately needed rest. Jeana took over, dodging cumulus clouds for the next three hours. The airplane had by this time consumed most of its fuel and was lighter, so fuel economy increased, allowing them to shut down the forward engine. Over the Carib­bean, north of Venezuela, Voyager’s fuel economy climbed to five miles per pound—30 miles per gallon. Nevertheless, the uncertain fuel situation prompted the crew to run the engine very lean. Mis­sion Control warned of cumulus buildups over Pan­ama, and suggested overflying Costa Rica instead.  

Later, heading northwest off the Nicaraguan coast, Voyager aimed for home as dawn broke on the flight’s eighth day. Headwinds slowed its ground speed to 65 knots. Dick flew on as Jeana managed the fuel flow. Suddenly the right side fuel pump went into overspeed and failed. Dick had anticipated such a possibility and arranged a bypass of the feeder tank through the engine’s mechanical pump. Now he made the switch and fuel again flowed. But the sight tube had to be checked constantly, to detect the first bubbles of air in the line.  

When the engine coughed a few times, changing tanks brought it back to life. Dick switched to a tank in the canard that he thought had plenty of fuel, but it didn’t and the engine stopped. Voyager had been running at 8,000 feet on the rear engine, to conserve fuel. Now they heard only the wind. Dick lowered the nose, hoping higher airspeed would restart the windmilling engine, to no avail. Without engine power, the mechanical pump couldn’t operate.  

Voyager was now down to 5,000 feet. Mike Melvill in Mission Control suggested starting the front engine, but Dick feared that would block the rear engine, with its still windmilling prop, from restarting. They needed both engines to get home. The situation was critical; Voyager was rapidly losing altitude.

Dick and Jeana followed the cold-engine-start checklist. “Elbow flying now,” Dick said, needing both hands for the restart sequence. “Just take it easy, Dick,” Jeana said. “You’re doing fine.” Voyager, heavy on the right side due to the fuel imbalance, continued down. Dick used the avionics backup battery to avoid an instrument-killing current surge from the main battery. Still, the front engine would not start. At 3,500 feet Dick leveled out, allowing the fuel to flow, and the engine finally coughed to life.

Now they had to finish replacing the right-side pump to relieve the imbalance from Voyager’s fuel-heavy right wing. Dick installed the pump while Jeana got the many valves turned correctly. An anxious half-hour passed before enough fuel to get them home flowed slowly into the feeder tank.

Finally Voyager left the ocean behind, and at first light was over California’s San Gabriel Moun­tains. Chase planes flown by Melvill and Shane joined up while Dick and Jeana kept their focus on precision flying. Voyager appeared over Edwards at 7:32 a.m. Dick did a flyby at 400 feet and a few more with the chase planes. He wanted to do one more flyby, at just 50 feet, but Jeana chimed in, “Dick, time to land, we’re running low on fuel.” Thousands of people were waiting as they carefully landed, taxied to the parking area and shut down the engines that had taken them around the world. When the leftover fuel was drained, little more than 108 pounds (18 gallons) of the original 7,000-plus pounds remained.

Voyager’s world flight remains one of the greatest achievements in aviation history. For their feat, the Rutans, Yeager and the Voyager team were awarded the 1986 Collier Trophy.  

Pierre Hartman is a former light-sport pilot who lives in Tehachapi, Calif., 20 miles from Mojave. Further reading: Voyager , by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, with Phil Patton; and Voyager: The World Flight , by Jack Norris.

This feature originally appeared in the November 2019 issue of Aviation History.

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No Stopping, No Refueling – A Record-Breaking Flight Around the World

December 14, 1986

The Rutan Model 76 Voyager, the first aircraft to circle around Earth without stopping or refueling, embarked on its historic flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the Mojave Desert. This westerly flight of 26,366 statute miles (42,432 kilometers) would end with great success nine days, three minutes, and 44 seconds later. 

The Voyager was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Both of them, along with Rutan’s brother Burt, had come up with the idea of the Voyager while they were having lunch one day in 1981. They sketched out the initial design at that time on the back of a napkin. Over the next five years, the actual aircraft was built by a group of volunteers. 

The Voyager’s innovative features for flight endurance included front and rear propellers powered by separate engines; the plan was for the rear engine to remain operational throughout the entire flight, while the front engine would provide that extra burst of energy for takeoff and the initial part of the journey. The start of the flight took place along a 15,000-foot (4,600-meter)-long runway at 8:01 a.m. on December 14, 1986.  “The Voyager experimental aircraft, its crew undaunted despite damage to its wingtips on take-off, soared out over the Pacific on the last great adventure in aviation,” proclaimed one newspaper account the following day.

For more information on the Rutan Model 76 Voyager and its pioneering round-the-world flight, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Voyager .

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Simple Flying

Rutan voyager: the first plane to circumnavigate the world without refueling or stopping.

The Rutan Voygaer holds the record for the longest flight in the world even today.

The Rutan Voyager Model 76 was the first plane to successfully circumnavigate the globe without making any stops at all. The thin airframe took five years to develop and set off on its journey on December 14th, 1986, landing a full nine days later on December 23rd. Here's a look at this record-breaking aircraft.

From a napkin to the skies

The Voyager was built by Burt Rutan, Dick Rutan, and Jeana Yaeger. Burt reportedly first sketched the design of the plane on a paper napkin in 1981 and started work not long after in Mojave, California under the banner of its aerospace company. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger were the pilots of the historic flight.

To sustain flight over 216 hours, keeping the weight of the aircraft at a minimum was essential. To do this, Rutan used a combination of composite materials like kevlar and fiberglass to bring the airframe weight to just 426kgs. The engines alone weighed more than this at 594kgs, with two propellers running in the middle section on either end.

At first glance, the Voyager Model 76 is unlike any commercial aircraft design , having no clear tail or fuselage, instead seeing one long wing cutting across three fuselage sections and a parallel connector for the trio. Rutan's design was built to maximize lift to drag ratio, which would be crucial to keeping the plane in the skies for days.

The design process took over five years until the plane was ready to take to the skies in June 1986 for the first time.

Testing to takeoff

Burt Rutan's design proved to be a successful one, with the two pilots using the Model 76 to break the record for the longest flight in the world in testing in July 1986 alone. However, the trio hoped to take the voyager on a journey like no other, circumnavigating the globe without any refueling or technical stops.

After over 60 test flights, the Rutan Voyager set off for its nonstop global flight on December 14th, 1986 from Edwards Air Force Base. However, things did not go too smoothly from the beginning, with the tips of the wings hitting the runway surface and eventually ripping off in the initial stages of the flight. However, the pilots opted to continue given the plane still met its technical range even without the tips.

The pair of pilots flew heroically, avoiding closed airspace, storms, and other weather events to ensure the plane's performance was not hampered significantly. With little space in the cockpit, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger were only able to switch over controls occasionally, with days passing at times.

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After a fuel pump failure toward the end of the flight, the two pilots managed to complete the voyage successfully at 08:06 AM on 23rd December at Edwards AFB, with a recorded journey time of over 216 hours and circumnavigating the globe. 38 years later, this record remains in place, with no endurance flight even close to beating the Rutan Model 76 Voyager.

Today, we fly non-stop around the world. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

M ost of us know about the 25,000-mile globe-girdling flight that Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger made in 1986, in their experimental airplane, Voyager . But do we fully appreciate that accomplishment? To begin with, they had to double the previous distance record to get all the way around the world in one bite. Before that flight, the competing requirements for fuel, and for the power to haul it around, seemed to diverge beyond about 12,000 miles. If you make an airplane bigger so it'll carry more fuel, the amount of fuel you need outruns the carrying capacity.

Dick Rutan's brother Burt, an airplane designer and builder, thought he could beat that equation with modern materials and an outrageous design. Five years and $2,000,000 later, the airplane was finished. It weighed just over 1800 pounds, but it had a greater wingspan than a Boeing 727. Its two light engines made up half that weight. Into this flying gas tank they poured 7000 pounds of fuel. Eighty percent of the weight of the loaded airplane was gasoline.

The fuel-filled wings so drooped on takeoff that they dragged on the runway until pieces fell off. The takeoff took 3 miles, and then this flimsy, overloaded machine spent almost three hours clawing its way up to a cruising altitude of 8000 feet.

Rutan, the more experienced of the two, did most of the flying. For nine sleepless days and nights, cramped in a frightfully noisy cabin -- only two feet wide -- Rutan and Yeager dodged storms, fought off hallucinations, and battled mechanical problems. After 216 hours in the air, they finally brought Voyager home with just 18 gallons of fuel left in her tanks.

So what did they accomplish? Well, more than you might think! Working without government or corporate support, they proved the feasibility of flying an airplane made so completely of new composite materials that it could almost have fooled a metal detector. The plane was a flying design laboratory. Their flight experience with these ideas was worth countless millions of dollars in wind-tunnel tests. And they made it clear that, if there is a distance barrier in flight, it's far greater than anyone had supposed.

But above all they showed us that the human spirit is still alive and kicking -- still willing to beat a really tough challenge for the sheer excitement of it. What they really did was to pump life into all of us by doing something extraordinary.

I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

(Theme music)

Heppenheimer, T.A., Voyager. Yearbook of Science and the Future . 1989 (D. Calhoun, ed.). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1989, pp. 142-159.

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This Day In History : December 23

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Voyager completes global flight

After nine days and four minutes in the sky, the experimental aircraft Voyager lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load of fuel. Piloted by Americans Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, Voyager was made mostly of plastic and stiffened paper and carried more than three times its weight in fuel when it took off from Edwards Air Force Base on December 14. By the time it returned, after flying 25,012 miles around the planet, it had just five gallons of fuel left in its remaining operational fuel tank.

Voyager was built by Burt Rutan of the Rutan Aircraft Company without government support and with minimal corporate sponsorship. Dick Rutan, Burt’s brother and a decorated Vietnam War pilot, joined the project early on, as did Dick’s friend Jeanna Yeager (no relation to aviator Chuck Yeager ). Voyager ‘s extremely light yet strong body was made of layers of carbon-fiber tape and paper impregnated with epoxy resin. Its wingspan was 111 feet, and it had its horizontal stabilizer wing on the plane’s nose rather than its rear–a trademark of many of Rutan’s aircraft designs. Essentially a flying fuel tank, every possible area was used for fuel storage and much modern aircraft technology was foregone in the effort to reduce weight.

When Voyager took off from Edwards Air Force at 8:02 a.m. PST on December 14, its wings were so heavy with fuel that their tips scraped along the ground and caused minor damage. The plane made it into the air, however, and headed west. On the second day, Voyager ran into severe turbulence caused by two tropical storms in the Pacific. Dick Rutan had been concerned about flying the aircraft at more than a 15-degree angle, but he soon found the plane could fly on its side at 90 degrees, which occurred when the wind tossed it back and forth.

Rutan and Yeager shared the controls, but Rutan, a more experienced pilot, did most of the flying owing to the long periods of turbulence encountered at various points in the journey. With weak stomachs, they ate only a fraction of the food brought along, and each lost about 10 pounds.

On December 23, when Voyager was flying north along the Baja California coast and just 450 miles short of its goal, the engine it was using went out, and the aircraft plunged from 8,500 to 5,000 feet before an alternate engine was started up.

Almost nine days to the minute after it lifted off, Voyager appeared over Edwards Air Force Base and circled as Yeager turned a primitive crank that lowered the landing gear. Then, to the cheers of 23,000 spectators, the plane landed safely with a few gallons of fuel to spare, completing the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by an aircraft that was not refueled in the air.

Voyager is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

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AIR & SPACE MAGAZINE

Burt rutan’s favorite ride.

The Boomerang could be the safest twin ever built

Steve Schapiro

When I first saw the Boomerang, Burt Rutan’s twin-engine, asymmetric, five-place, long-range oddity, my reaction, like that of a number of Rutan fans who witnessed the airplane’s debut at the 1996 Oshkosh, Wisconsin AirVenture, was Why? Why is there a small boom to the left of the fuselage? Why is the second engine, in the nose of the boom, five feet behind the engine on the fuselage nose? Why is the right wing almost five feet shorter than the left? Why are the wings swept forward? Why does the horizontal stabilizer, which joins the fins on the twin tails, extend past the right fin, but not past the left?

In March, when Rutan received the National Air and Space Museum trophy for lifetime achievement, he gave an interviewer a short answer to those questions: “Self preservation.” The longer answer concerns how a conventional twin behaves when one of the engines quits. Last fall, with the help of Boomerang custodian Tres Clements and California flight instructor Chuck Coleman, I  compared the engine-out performance of the Boomerang with that of a conventional twin.

Coleman and I flew his Beechcraft Baron around his home airport in Mojave. The Baron is one of the best selling twins on the market, a pretty, lightweight, six-seat aircraft that cruises at about 200 mph. Like most twins, it has an engine on each wing. If one engine fails, the asymmetry of the thrust will forcefully turn the airplane in the direction of the inoperative engine, which is producing drag.

To maintain straight and level flight, the pilot must add rudder and aileron in a coordinated fashion in the direction of the good engine. For example, if the left engine is out, the pilot adds right rudder and banks to the right. To earn a multi-engine rating, every pilot must perform this maneuver to the satisfaction of a flight instructor.

While controlling the aircraft in this way, a pilot must keep the airspeed above the minimum controllable speed (Vmc). For every twin-engine aircraft, this speed,  the minimum at which the airplane can be flown with one engine inoperative, is established during flight testing. “In most twins, the [minimum controllable speed] is above the stall speed,” says Coleman. “So if you were to lose one engine abruptly and you’re below that Vmc/stall speed, it’s going to flip over on its back instantly.” Pilots train to avoid that situation.

During our flight, Coleman brought the left engine to idle and feathered the propeller (angling the blades to create the least drag). Thinking of airspeed, the first thing I did was add full power to the right engine. To keep from turning, I rolled in plenty of right aileron and pushed the right rudder pedal. I had to push it all the way to the floor just to keep the airplane flying straight ahead. In seconds, holding the pressure needed on the rudder pedal was making my leg shake uncontrollably. The yoke was turned almost as far as it could go. All the while I was keeping my eye on the airspeed indicator to make sure we stayed above the 80-knot blue line, indicating the Vmc.

Even though I was able to maintain my altitude and heading, it took immense  effort. With that demonstration, I understood how difficult and dangerous it is to fly a traditional twin with only one engine, and what Rutan was trying to achieve with the Boomerang.

“My goal was to have the minimum control speed well below the stall,” Rutan says. In the Boomerang, the wing stalls at its root, near the fuselage, long before the outboard wing. The pilot experiences all the indications of stall, including buffeting, even though part of the airplane is still producing lift. Rutan wanted an airplane that could be controlled even after the onset of stall.

“The first time I feathered [a Boomerang prop] and was slowing down with the other engine at full power, it wasn’t real obvious what I should do with the rudder pedals,” says Rutan. “It’s real obvious on a Baron—you better be putting rudder in and quite a bit.” So I had found part of the answer to my question Why? But I was curious about How? And even more curious to know What does it feel like to fly the Boomerang on one engine? I got the answer to that question because Burt Rutan decided to retire.

Safety First, Range Next The Boomerang had its roots in two of Rutan’s earlier designs: the twin-engine Defiant and the high-performance, single-engine Catbird. In fact, he used the Catbird nose gear and engine on the Boomerang.

The Defiant has one engine in the front and another in back; such centerline-thrust designs enable an airplane to continue flying safely if either engine shuts down. Centerline thrust, however, has drawbacks. “When you have a pusher-propeller aft of the wing, it vibrates and creates noise,” Rutan says.

Rutan flew the Defiant as his personal aircraft for years, but he wanted an aircraft that had the range to go to Australia or Europe. He began thinking of a long-range twin at about the time the Catbird won the 1988 CAFE 400 race for efficiency, fuel economy, speed, and payload capacity. The Catbird still holds two speed records.

“I decided that I’m going to do a twin with the same type of attention to performance that I had put into the Catbird,” Rutan says. “My plan was to design the lowest-drag light twin that I could, and while I was at it have a lot of fuel, make a lot of range, and of course have the Defiant, or better, engine-out characteristics.”

At a presentation for the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Rutan explained the Boomerang’s performance by walking his audience through a list of incremental changes to a traditional twin-engine design—a Beechcraft Baron, in fact. The series of changes transformed the conventional twin into an airplane that could fly symmetrically on two engines or one (see diagram, p. 42). In both the Catbird and the Boomerang, Rutan reduced drag by using a dolphin-shaped fuselage that narrows between the cabin and the tail. He modified airfoils used on his early craft, like the Voyager, to create an efficient, low-drag airfoil for the Boomerang’s wings.

Rutan knew he wanted a turbocharged airplane, like the Catbird, because it would enable him to fly at much higher altitudes, where, in thinner air presenting less resistance, the airplane could fly faster, or farther, using less fuel.

Built of lightweight composites, the Boomerang can carry five people, their luggage, and 171 gallons of fuel almost 1,900 miles (1,652 nautical). Running its two Lycoming engines (210 horsepower on the fuselage; 200 on the nacelle) at 75 percent power, a pilot can cruise that distance at 302 mph. Reducing the power settings to 37 percent will stretch the range to more than 2,960 miles cruising at 215 mph and 20,000 feet.

For six years, beginning in 1996, Rutan flew everywhere in the Boomerang. In 2002, a series of heart surgeries limited his flying. When he announced his retirement from his company, Scaled Composites, in late 2010, he planned to donate the airplane to a museum, but the more he thought about the idea, the less he liked it. Instead, he began looking for “someone who could enjoy its features and would work to restore it and keep it flying indefinitely.”

At the time, Tres Clements, a 28-year-old engineer who had been at Scaled Composites for a year and a half, was one of several volunteers working at night and on weekends on the last aircraft Rutan designed before he retired: a twin-boom, roadable aircraft known as the Bipod. (It’s not uncommon to find lights on in the Mojave Airport hangars late into the night as dozens of aircraft designers and builders work on their personal projects.) When Clements asked Rutan what he planned to do with the Boomerang, Rutan answered, “I don’t know. Do you want it?” At first, Clements thought he was joking, but that’s how he became the caretaker of the historic aircraft. Clements spent the next four months restoring the Boomerang, with the help of a team that included former Scaled test pilot Mike Melvill and engineer Ryan Malherbe. In July 2011, Clements, Malherbe, and Bob Morgan, the project engineer for mothership WhiteKnightTwo , flew the restored Boomerang to Oshkosh for a tribute to Rutan and his extraordinary airplanes.

Flying the Boomerang “The first time I pulled an engine back, I was like, Wow, I can’t believe it actually flies like this,” Clements says. “It’s not doing what you’d expect. It’s flying really nicely when it should be flying really bad.” Last October, when Clements flew the airplane from Mojave to Oregon Aero, a company north of Portland that had offered to install a new interior, I hitched a ride.

Getting into the Boomerang’s cockpit isn’t easy. There isn’t a traditional door. Instead, there is a large oval window, which is on a rail and slides back to provide a wide space to climb through. The window is unlatched by a lever on the fuselage that folds down to double as a foothold.

The foothold is about at the waist of my 5-foot-10 frame, and for someone like me, with long legs and not great flexibility, it was a bit of a challenge to get my foot on the step. In the fuselage, you step on a shelf, taking care not to bump any knobs on the instrument panel.

In the Boomerang, the pilot-in-command sits in the right seat. This atypical arrangement enables the pilot to be the last one into the cockpit—therefore the one to shut and latch the door. It also affords the pilot better visibility, since the boom is on the other side.

As the sun was rising above the desert, we took off on Runway 8 and turned northwest, climbing slowly up to 14,500 feet, then leveling off. Once Clements trimmed the aircraft for cruise power, he turned the controls over to me.

The side stick is on the left, just in front of the armrest. The controls are incredibly light, which took me a while to get used to. The smallest movement resulted in a change. I had no problem keeping the wings level, but I struggled with the pitch, chasing the digital altimeter more than I’d like to admit. In fact, Clements suggested holding the stick with just two fingers instead of gripping it with my entire hand.

Something else that was unusual: There were no rudder pedals in front of me. The only rudder pedals are on the right side.

Once I became comfortable with the controls, we did the same maneuver that Coleman and I had done in the Baron to demonstrate what makes the Boomerang unique. Clements brought the left engine to idle, and I eased the nose up to hold altitude. And that was it. Instead of pulling to the left and trying to flip over, the airplane flew straight.

To prove he wasn’t adding in any rudder, Clements stomped on the floor and said, “Look, my feet aren’t on the rudders.” In fact, with the stick all the way back, which in most airplanes would lead to a stall, I was able to roll left or right without a problem, as well as maintain heading and a safe airspeed. I had no fear that the airplane would roll inverted, or lose altitude. Flying with either engine idled made no discernible difference in performance: The Boomerang just keeps flying.

As we neared Scappoose, Clements took the controls. When we touched down and taxied in, a crowd led by Oregon Aero President Mike Dennis met us. Clements is used to that kind of reception whenever he flies the Boomerang, which is about once a month. “It gets attention wherever you go,” he says. “There’s no hiding it.”

Rutan has said that this is the one general aviation aircraft he designed that he’d like to go into production. “It’s the most significant general aviation airplane I’ve ever done,” he says. “I want to keep the concept alive by keeping my own airplane flying.”

Dale Johnson, vice president of Paragon Aircraft Corporation in Salem, Oregon, is part of a group working to develop a straight-wing, turboprop version of the aircraft. Preliminary calculations show that at a cruise speed close to 370 mph, it would have a range of 2,000 to 2,300 miles. The only thing holding the group back is raising the necessary funding to get a prototype built and to undertake the costly Federal Aviation Administration certification process.

“I think it would be a very formidable aircraft in the market,” Johnson says.

One day there may be more than one Boomerang drawing crowds at airports and keeping pilots safe if an engine fails.

Steve Schapiro is an aviation writer and photographer. He earned his private pilot’s license when he was 17, and currently owns a 1968 Piper Cherokee Arrow, which his father bought new and picked up at the factory in Vero Beach, Florida.

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• Aircraft Details

Rutan Model 76 Voyager Replica

More than a dozen innovative aircraft designs have sprung from the mind of Burt Rutan. After early work as a flight test engineer, then a designer for Bede Aircraft, Rutan formed his own company in the mid-1970s. He was a pioneer in the use of composite materials such as fiberglass and later formed Scaled Composites to produce prototypes for himself and the aerospace industry.

Rutan's Model 76 Voyager is an all-composite airframe made primarily from a 1/4-inch sandwich of paper honeycomb and graphite fiber, which was shaped and then cured in an oven. The front and rear propellers are powered by two difference engines. The front engine, an air-cooled Teledyne Continental O-240, provides extra power for take-off and during the initial flight stage while the plane was heavily loaded with fuel. The rear engine is a water-cooled Teledyne Continental IOL-200, which acts as the main source of power throughout the flight.

The Voyager accomplished the first nonstop, non-refueled flight around the world. Piloted by Dick Rutan (Burt's brother) and Jeana Yeager, the plane began its flight on December 14, 1986. On December 23, Nine days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds later, it landed back at Edwards Air Force Base.

The original Rutan Voyager is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The Museum of Flight's facsimile of the Model 76 Voyager is on loan to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac), where it can be seen on display in the main terminal.

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Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies at 85

FILE - Co-pilots Dick Rutan, right, and Jeana Yeager, no relationship to test pilot Chuck Yeager, pose for a photo after a test flight over the Mojave Desert, Dec. 19, 1985. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024. He was 85. (AP Photo/Doug Pizac, File)

FILE - Balloonist Dick Rutan talks about the short flight of the Global Hilton balloon at a news conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Friday, Jan. 9, 1998. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Jeana Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024. He was 85. (AP Photo/Jake Schoellkopf, File)

FILE - Dick Rutan works on disassembling the wings of his Cessna on Buttermere Road in Victorville, Calif., where he made an emergency landing, early Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Jeana Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024. He was 85. (Reneh Agha/Daily Press via AP, File)

FILE - Sir Richard Branson, left, shakes hands with record breaking aviator Dick Rutan after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket was unveiled, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Mojave, Calif. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Jeana Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024. He was 85. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)

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MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died Friday evening at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with Burt and other loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died on his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen after suffering a severe lung infection.

“He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano,” said Burt Rutan of his brother, who was often described as has having a velvet arm because of his smooth flying style.

Burt Rutan said he had always loved designing airplanes and became fascinated with the idea of a craft that could go clear around the world. His brother was equally passionate about flying. The project took six years.

There was plenty to worry Burt during testing of the light graphite plane, Voyager. There were mechanical failures, any one of which would have been disastrous over a distant ocean. When fully laden, the plane couldn’t handle turbulence. And then there was the question of how the pilots could endure such a long flight on so little sleep. But Burt said his brother had an optimism about him that made them all believe.

“Dick never doubted whether my design would actually make it around, with still some gas in the tank,” Burt Rutan said.

Voyager left from Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986. Rutan said with all that fuel, the wings had only inches of clearance. Dick couldn’t see when they started dragging on the runway. But at the moment Burt called on the radio, copilot Yeager gave a speed report, drowning out the message.

“And then, the velvet arm really came in,” Burt Rutan said. “And he very slowly brought the stick back and the wings bent way up, some 30 feet at the wingtips, and it lifted off very smoothly.”

They arrived back to a hero’s welcome as thousands gathered to witness the landing. Both Rutan brothers and Yeager were each awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan, who described how a local official in Thailand at first “refused to believe some cockamamie story” about a plane flying around the world on a single tank of gas.

“We had the freedom to pursue a dream, and that’s important,” Dick Rutan said at the ceremony. “And we should never forget, and those that guard our freedoms, that we should hang on to them very tenaciously and be very careful about some do-gooder that thinks that our safety is more important than our freedom. Because freedom is awful difficult to obtain, and it’s even more difficult to regain it once it’s lost.”

Richard Glenn Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a teenager and flew more than 300 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

He was part of an elite group that would loiter over enemy anti-aircraft positions for hours at a time. The missions had the call sign “Misty,” and Dick was known as “Misty Four-Zero.” Among the many awards Dick received were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

He survived having to eject twice from planes, once when his F-100 Super Sabre was hit by enemy fire over Vietnam, and a second time when he was stationed in England and the same type of plane had a mechanical failure. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went on to work as a test pilot.

Burt Rutan said his brother was always having adventures, like the time he got stranded at the North Pole for a couple of days when the Russian biplane he was in landed and then sank through the ice.

Dick Rutan set another record in 2005 when he flew about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in a rocket-powered plane launched from the ground in Mojave, California. It was also the first time U.S. mail had been carried by such a plane.

Greg Morris, the president of Scaled Composites, a company founded by Burt Rutan, said he first met Dick was when he was about seven and over the years always found him generous and welcoming.

“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Morris said, listing off Rutan’s legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight. “Any one of those contributions would make a legend in aviation. All of them together, in one person, is just inconceivable.”

Whittle said Rutan had been courageous in his final hours at the hospital — sharp as a tack, calm and joking with them about what might come next after death.

“He’s the greatest pilot that’s ever lived,” Whittle said.

Dick Rutan is survived by his wife of 25 years Kris Rutan; daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman; and grandchildren Jack, Sean, Noelle and Haley.

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Remembering Dick Rutan, Aviation Legend and Decorated Veteran

• May 5, 2024
• Mike Killian

This weekend, the aviation world mourns the loss of a pioneer in the industry. Remembering USAF Lt Col (ret) Dick Rutan, an aviation legend and decorated combat veteran.

Rutan passed away on May 3, while battling a severe lung infection. Close friend Bill Whittle said Rutan died on “his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen.” Rutan passed away surrounded by friends and family in Idaho.

It all started at an air show

Like many youngsters, the seed for a life of aviation was planted young when Rutan’s mother brought him to an air show. What really caught his attention was an F-100 Super Sabre, and the pilots who flew it.

“I looked up at the pilot, as a little kid and I thought, man, I would really like to be that, but there would be no fine way I could ever do that,” recalled Rutan during a speech in 2010. “Fighter pilots, they’re a different species.”

He always credited his mother for supporting his dreams and goals. “She admonished me when I said that there wasn’t any way I could become a fighter pilot,” he recalled. “She taught us that if you can dream it, you can do it, and the only way to fail is if you quit.”

Rutan always wanted to be a fighter pilot, so that’s what he did

Richard Glenn Rutan was plane-crazy from that moment on. He earned his private on his 16th birthday, and his driver license (yes he got them the same day). His dream plane to fly, was the F-100 Super Sabre.

So, he joined the USAF Aviation Cadet Program. Rutan became a second lieutenant, earned his navigator wings, and was deployed to Iceland to fly Northrop’s F-89 Scorpion. He then flew the Douglas C-124 Globemaster.

After accumulating 1,900 flight hours as a navigator, he entered pilot training and graduated at the top of his class in 1967.

He got his dream jet too, the F-100. However, it would also mean he was being sent to combat in South Vietnam. He started flying ground attack missions, but soon became a forward air controller (FAC) in the Commando Sabre program, more commonly known as the the secretive MISTY program .

Rutan survived being shot down and was highly decorated

Rutan was responsible for loitering over enemy positions ahead of strike packages as “Misty Four-Zero”, marking targets for the strike aircraft to attack.

He was shot down on such a mission too, his 325th flight during his third tour. It wouldn’t be his only emergency ejection either. He later had to punch out of another Super Sabre in England when it suffered an engine malfunction.

He received many awards in his time serving, including the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Rutan was also awarded 16 Air Medals and five Distinguished Flying Crosses.

One of the Super Sabres he flew is now on display at the National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, OH.

Rutan retired and became a test pilot

After retiring from the USAF in 1978, Rutan became a Production Manager and Chief Test Pilot for his brother Burt’s company, Rutan Aircraft Factory.

Dick flew the test flight development programs for several military and civilian experimental aircraft. He also flew air show demos.

However, Rutan still had an itch that needed scratching.

Dick Rutan joined Jeana Yeager to set the last great aviation record to date

He met Jeana Yeager in 1980, and together began pursuing a goal to fly nonstop, around-the-world, without refueling. He resigned from his brother’s company in 1981, and founded Voyager Aircraft, Inc.

Together they flew the Voyager over 26,000 miles, taking off and returning to Edwards AFB. The plane was designed by his famous brother, Burt.

Dreams however take money, and aviation dreams take a LOT of money. To fund their idea, and bring publicity, Rutan decided to set several aircraft speed and endurance records before his big round the world flight. In 1981 he set a distance record of 4,563 statute miles for an aircraft weighing less than 1,000 kilograms. Soon after, he set a closed-course speed record for both 500 and 2,000 kilometers.

Rutan was a hot air balloon pilot, too

It would seem that, if it could fly, Rutan wanted to fly it. He earned his balloon pilot’s license in 1995 (Commercial free air balloon; helium and hot air). Of course, he had a record setting vision for hot-air balloons, too.

He attempted the first ever flight around the world flight in a balloon in 1998. He didn’t get very far. The mission ended three hours after takeoff when his balloon’s helium cell ruptured at 30,000 feet. Rutan and his crew bailed out safely at 6,000 ft, before the balloon crashed to the ground and burst into flames.

He vowed to try again, and built a new balloon and capsule for it. Another team, however, beat him to the record in 1998.

Dick Rutan was rescued from the North Pole after his plane fell through ice

No stranger to adventure, Dick Rutan decided to sightsee the North Pole on an airplane trek in 2000. The season however was unusually warm.

Flying a Russian AN-2 Antonov, they landed on what appeared to be good ice. However, it was too thin, and before they could takeoff to find a different location, the plane had already started sinking into the frozen abyss.

The plane was sinking nose first into the water, but its wings held it above the surface long enough for the crew to escape with their survival equipment. Rutan and co were stranded at the top of the world for 12 hours, before being rescued.

More awards and records

While his flight around the world is what Dick Rutan will be most remembered for, his list of accomplishments would continue.

He was awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal, the Collier Trophy, the Order of Daedalians Distinguished Achievement Award, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2002.

He conducted the “shortest long-distance flight” ever in 2005, when he broke a world record for the longest distance in a ground-launched rocket-powered aircraft (called the EZ rocket). He flew it about 10 miles.

Rutan was honored with the Howard Hughes Memorial Award in 2021.

“He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano.” – Burt Rutan

Killian is our Assistant Editor & a full time aerospace photojournalist. He covers both spaceflight and military / civilian aviation & produces stories, original content & reporting for various media & publishers. Over the years he’s been onboard NASA's space shuttles, flown jet shoots into solar eclipses, launched off aircraft carriers, has worked with the Blue Angels & most of the air show industry, & has flown photo shoots with almost every vintage warbird that is still airworthy.

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Round-the-World Aviator Dick Rutan Dies at 85

Rutan is best known for the record-setting nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation he and jeana yeager accomplished in 1986..

On December 14, 1986, after nearly six years of intensive research and development work, Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan departed from Edwards Air Force Base in California, embarking on the first non-stop flight around the world. The couple flew the Rutan Model 76 Voyager, a twin-engine sailplane designed by Rutan’s innovative brother, Burt. After nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds of flight, covering 24,986 miles on one tank of gas, Yeager and Rutan landed safely back at Edwards. [File photo]

Legendary pilot, educator, and adventurer Dick Rutan died Friday, according to a press release issued on behalf of the family. He was 85.

Rutan, best known for the record-setting nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation he and Jeana Yeager accomplished in 1986, died in Kootenai Hospital in Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, in the early evening from complications resulting from a yearlong bout with long COVID, according to family friends.

• READ MORE: Dick Rutan Pilots First Test Flight of EPS Diesel

“He spent his last day in the company of friends and family, including his brother, Burt, and passed away peacefully at Kootenai Health Hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in the company of his loving wife of 25 years, Kris Rutan,” said the release. “He is survived by daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman, and his four grandchildren, Jack, Sean, Noelle, and Haley.”

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

• READ MORE: 51 Heroes and Heroines of Aviation

EAA chairman Jack Pelton said Rutan was a major contributor to the organization and aviation as a whole.

“Dick Rutan is closely linked with EAA history for the past half-century,” Pelton said. “Whether it was the flights of canard aircraft to Oshkosh back in the 1970s, the unforgettable Voyager project and mission in the 1980s, or his trips to AirVenture for forum presentations almost every year, Dick Rutan was a true friend of EAA and AirVenture. We will miss him and remember him, and our condolences go to his family at this time.”

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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Dick Rutan, pioneering aviator and Voyager pilot, dies at 85

Dick Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot who co-piloted the history-making Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, refuel-free circumnavigation of the globe, passed away on May 3 at the age of 85.

Rutan, alongside his co-pilot Jeana Yeager and his brother, renowned aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan, etched their names in aviation history with the successful completion of the Voyager project in 1986. The project, a culmination of six years of meticulous design and testing, pushed the boundaries of what was deemed possible in flight.

The journey was fraught with potential pitfalls. The specially designed Voyager, a lightweight graphite aircraft, faced challenges during testing, including mechanical failures and the inability to handle turbulence when fully loaded. Additionally, the pilots faced the daunting task of enduring a lengthy flight with minimal sleep. However, Dick Rutan’s unwavering optimism and unwavering trust in his brother’s engineering skills kept the team focused on their objective.

Despite a near-disastrous takeoff incident where the plane’s wingtips scraped the runway due to its heavy fuel load, Rutan’s exceptional piloting skills ensured a smooth liftoff. Nine days and three minutes later, they had achieved the seemingly impossible, landing to a hero’s welcome as thousands gathered to witness a historic moment in aviation.

A decorated Vietnam War veteran, Rutan flew more than 300 combat missions and received numerous accolades, including the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Beyond his military service, Rutan was a true adventurer, known for experiences like a harrowing multi-day stranding at the North Pole. His pursuit of pushing boundaries continued beyond Voyager, as evidenced by his 2005 feat of piloting a rocket-powered aircraft for the first time with U.S. mail aboard.

Dick Rutan’s life serves as an inspiration for his unwavering courage, dedication to innovation, and relentless pursuit of dreams. His contributions to the world of aviation, encompassing his service as a military pilot, his groundbreaking flight on Voyager, and his continued exploration of flight possibilities, solidify his place as a legend in the history of aerospace exploration.

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Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies at 85

M EREDITH, N.H. (AP) — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died Friday evening at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with Burt and other loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died on his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen after suffering a severe lung infection.

“He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano,” said Burt Rutan of his brother, who was often described as has having a velvet arm because of his smooth flying style.

Burt Rutan said he had always loved designing airplanes and became fascinated with the idea of a craft that could go clear around the world. His brother was equally passionate about flying. The project took six years.

There was plenty to worry Burt during testing of the light graphite plane, Voyager. There were mechanical failures, any one of which would have been disastrous over a distant ocean. When fully laden, the plane couldn't handle turbulence. And then there was the question of how the pilots could endure such a long flight on so little sleep. But Burt said his brother had an optimism about him that made them all believe.

“Dick never doubted whether my design would actually make it around, with still some gas in the tank,” Burt Rutan said.

Voyager left from Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986. Rutan said with all that fuel, the wings had only inches of clearance. Dick couldn't see when they started dragging on the runway. But at the moment Burt called on the radio, copilot Yeager gave a speed report, drowning out the message.

“And then, the velvet arm really came in,” Burt Rutan said. “And he very slowly brought the stick back and the wings bent way up, some 30 feet at the wingtips, and it lifted off very smoothly.”

They arrived back to a hero's welcome as thousands gathered to witness the landing. Both Rutan brothers and Yeager were each awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan, who described how a local official in Thailand at first “refused to believe some cockamamie story" about a plane flying around the world on a single tank of gas.

“We had the freedom to pursue a dream, and that’s important," Dick Rutan said at the ceremony. “And we should never forget, and those that guard our freedoms, that we should hang on to them very tenaciously and be very careful about some do-gooder that thinks that our safety is more important than our freedom. Because freedom is awful difficult to obtain, and it’s even more difficult to regain it once it’s lost.”

Richard Glenn Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a teenager and flew more than 300 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

He was part of an elite group that would loiter over enemy anti-aircraft positions for hours at a time. The missions had the call sign “Misty," and Dick was known as “Misty Four-Zero.” Among the many awards Dick received were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

He survived having to eject twice from planes, once when his F-100 Super Sabre was hit by enemy fire over Vietnam, and a second time when he was stationed in England and the same type of plane had a mechanical failure. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went on to work as a test pilot.

Burt Rutan said his brother was always having adventures, like the time he got stranded at the North Pole for a couple of days when the Russian biplane he was in landed and then sank through the ice.

Dick Rutan set another record in 2005 when he flew about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in a rocket-powered plane launched from the ground in Mojave, California. It was also the first time U.S. mail had been carried by such a plane.

Greg Morris, the president of Scaled Composites, a company founded by Burt Rutan, said he first met Dick was when he was about seven and over the years always found him generous and welcoming.

“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Morris said, listing off Rutan's legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight. “Any one of those contributions would make a legend in aviation. All of them together, in one person, is just inconceivable.”

Whittle said Rutan had been courageous in his final hours at the hospital — sharp as a tack, calm and joking with them about what might come next after death.

“He’s the greatest pilot that’s ever lived,” Whittle said.

Dick Rutan is survived by his wife of 25 years Kris Rutan; daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman; and grandchildren Jack, Sean, Noelle and Haley.

Dick Rutan, co-pilot of historic round-the-world flight, dies at 85

Dick Rutan, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling

MEREDITH, N.H. — Burt Rutan was alarmed to see the plane he had designed was so loaded with fuel that the wing tips started dragging along the ground as it taxied down the runway. He grabbed the radio to warn the pilot, his older brother Dick Rutan. But Dick never heard the message.

Nine days and three minutes later, Dick, along with copilot Jeana Yeager, completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling.

A decorated Vietnam War pilot, Dick Rutan died Friday evening at a hospital in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with Burt and other loved ones by his side. He was 85. His friend Bill Whittle said he died on his own terms when he decided against enduring a second night on oxygen after suffering a severe lung infection.

“He played an airplane like someone plays a grand piano,” said Burt Rutan of his brother, who was often described as has having a velvet arm because of his smooth flying style.

Burt Rutan said he had always loved designing airplanes and became fascinated with the idea of a craft that could go clear around the world. His brother was equally passionate about flying. The project took six years.

There was plenty to worry Burt during testing of the light graphite plane, Voyager. There were mechanical failures, any one of which would have been disastrous over a distant ocean. When fully laden, the plane couldn’t handle turbulence. And then there was the question of how the pilots could endure such a long flight on so little sleep. But Burt said his brother had an optimism about him that made them all believe.

“Dick never doubted whether my design would actually make it around, with still some gas in the tank,” Burt Rutan said.

Voyager left from Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986. Rutan said with all that fuel, the wings had only inches of clearance. Dick couldn’t see when they started dragging on the runway. But at the moment Burt called on the radio, copilot Yeager gave a speed report, drowning out the message.

“And then, the velvet arm really came in,” Burt Rutan said. “And he very slowly brought the stick back and the wings bent way up, some 30 feet at the wingtips, and it lifted off very smoothly.”

They arrived back to a hero’s welcome as thousands gathered to witness the landing. Both Rutan brothers and Yeager were each awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal by President Ronald Reagan, who described how a local official in Thailand at first “refused to believe some cockamamie story” about a plane flying around the world on a single tank of gas.

“We had the freedom to pursue a dream, and that’s important,” Dick Rutan said at the ceremony. “And we should never forget, and those that guard our freedoms, that we should hang on to them very tenaciously and be very careful about some do-gooder that thinks that our safety is more important than our freedom. Because freedom is awful difficult to obtain, and it’s even more difficult to regain it once it’s lost.”

Richard Glenn Rutan was born in Loma Linda, California. He joined the U.S. Air Force as a teenager and flew more than 300 combat missions during the Vietnam War.

He was part of an elite group that would loiter over enemy anti-aircraft positions for hours at a time. The missions had the call sign “Misty,” and Dick was known as “Misty Four-Zero.” Among the many awards Dick received were the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.

He survived having to eject twice from planes, once when his F-100 Super Sabre was hit by enemy fire over Vietnam, and a second time when he was stationed in England and the same type of plane had a mechanical failure. He retired from the Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and went on to work as a test pilot.

Burt Rutan said his brother was always having adventures, like the time he got stranded at the North Pole for a couple of days when the Russian biplane he was in landed and then sank through the ice.

Dick Rutan set another record in 2005 when he flew about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in a rocket-powered plane launched from the ground in Mojave, California. It was also the first time U.S. mail had been carried by such a plane.

Greg Morris, the president of Scaled Composites, a company founded by Burt Rutan, said he first met Dick was when he was about seven and over the years always found him generous and welcoming.

“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Morris said, listing off Rutan’s legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight. “Any one of those contributions would make a legend in aviation. All of them together, in one person, is just inconceivable.”

Whittle said Rutan had been courageous in his final hours at the hospital — sharp as a tack, calm and joking with them about what might come next after death.

“He’s the greatest pilot that’s ever lived,” Whittle said.

Dick Rutan is survived by his wife of 25 years Kris Rutan; daughters Holly Hogan and Jill Hoffman; and grandchildren Jack, Sean, Noelle and Haley.

President Joe Biden presents the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the United States Military Academy Army Black Knights at the White House.

Dick Rutan, aviation milestone setter, dies at 85.

by Adjoa Aikins

Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. (FOX26) — Dick Rutan, the first co-pilot for the voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled around the world flight, died at 85.

Rutan who attended Reedley Junior College, co-piloted the voyager with Jeana Yeager in 1986.

Voyager left Edwards Air Force Base in California just after 8 a.m. on Dec. 14, 1986.

This was considered a milestone in aviation history.

Rutan was also a decorated Vietnam War pilot.

Died died Friday night at a Coeur D’Alene Hospital in Idaho.