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
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.
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.
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.
Mr 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.
“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Mr Morris said, listing off Rutan’s legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight.
The original article contains 891 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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.
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.
Mr 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.
“Bigger than life, in every sense of the word,” Mr Morris said, listing off Rutan’s legacy in the Vietnam War, testing planes and on the Voyager flight.
The original article contains 891 words, the summary contains 197 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!