About Rutan Aircraft Factory, Inc.
Burt Rutan was raised in Dinuba, California. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering at California Polytechnic University in 1965. He worked for the U.S. Air Force from 1965 until 1972 as Flight Test Project Engineer at Edwards Air Force Base, California. In March 1972, he became director of the Bede Test Center for Bede Aircraft in Newton, Kansas. Then, in June 1974 Burt Rutan left his job at Bede Test Center, moved his family to Mojave, California and started Rutan Aircraft Factory (RAF) in order to develop a non-conventional research aircraft he had designed while still in college-the VariViggen. Through this company, the VariViggen, VariEze, NASA AD-1, Quickie, Defiant, Long-EZ, Grizzly, scaled NGT trainer, Solitaire, Catbird, the Boomerang and the world-flight Voyager aircraft were developed.
In April 1982, Burt Rutan founded Scaled Composites, Inc. (Scaled) to develop research aircraft. The company currently employs 130 people at the Mojave, California airport. For 20 years, Scaled has been the world's most productive aerospace prototype development company rolling out, on average, one new aircraft type a year. Most of Scaled's current projects are proprietary to the customer. www.scaled.com
Today, 17 years after RAF stopped selling plans for its homebuilt aircraft, the company is staffed by volunteers and is housed in a small office facing the runway on Mojave Airport. While aircraft plans are no longer available to the public, RAF will continue to support, for some limited time, the individuals who have already purchased plans and are in the building process.
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