Rutan is the MAN! All I have to say, is the Burt Rutan is one talented son-of-a-bitch. His company, Scaled Composites has extended every facet of aviation further than anyone else. You may or may not have heard of the the X-Prize - a competition that awards US$10 million to a private company that can launch a craft with three passengers into space, return them to Earth and do it all over again in a week's time frame. Scaled Composite's WhiteKnight and SpaceShipOne pulled an amazing test this morning. they made it up to 41 miles (thats 212,000 feet!)