Old video of Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill demoing composite strength.

In article ,
"RST Engineering" wrote:


Popularity is now your measure of goodness? That sure isn't
engineering. I've seen a steady stream of popular and useless techs
and engineers.

No. Engineering is making what you want from what you've got. It takes a
special breed of cat to do that time after time after time successfully.

Rutan is good--great--at highly experimental, bleeding edge, one-off
designs. He sucks at designing anything even partway extending
mainstream, usable designs. Just what the hell has ever happened
later in the mainstream with his pioneering work? Not much.

Like most brilliant folks, having done it once proved the point. It remains
for the plodders to replicate it for the mass market. I love R&D; I detest
production. I only do it because that puts the beans on the table. He
found another way to get the beans.

Space I? Damn near had disasters on one or two of the flights as I
recall.

And the roll problem was diagnosed, treated and fixed, right?

Isn't this the way aeronautical development has been done over the last
century or so? I don't recall everyone else having always fixed all
potential problems before bending metal throughout history.

And his tilting tail "innovation" is a dead end: will never
work for orbital.

And your credentials for making this statement are? Your degree in
aeroengineering is from where?

Looking at Rutan's designs over the years, he appears to be very much
focused on highly-specific engineering solutions for a given project.

Subsequent projects may or may not use the same approach.

SS1/2's shuttlecock solution is a very elegant solution for suborbital
return. I don't see any reason why he'd want to use it for some future
orbital craft; which is to say I don't see it as a problem.

He sucks at attitude. His constant dissing of anything from NASA
disrespects the genuine accomplishments of many thousands of
engineers, techs, etc.

I haven't heard every single comment of his about NASA, but what I have
heard was clearly, to me, aimed largely at the post-Apollo bureaucracy
(and related Congressional issues).

The which has had serious problems with followthrough on major projects
over the past 30 years, though not all of them *totally* NASA's fault.

Ever work for NASA, sonny? NASA has a lot of interpretations of their
acronym, not a lot of them positive. I got my chops for my first five years
out of school working for them under contract. Apollo 13 and the meter-foot
Mars plow isn't but the tip of the iceberg; it is all you have been allowed
to see.

He also sucks at being careful, killing workers with his casual
treatment of very dangerous fuels.

You miserable *******. You miserable lousy *******. It was just a usenet
discussion up until now. I hope your mother has recovered from the disease
she got when the soldiers invaded your country.

This is the point at which Bob provides proof that Rutan sneaked into
the facility in the dead of night and sabotaged equipment to kill his
own employees and friends, right?

Criminal conspiracies being so much more likely than a tragic accident,
and all.