MSNBC is running an inside profile of Burt Rutan’s new spaceplane design. Rutan is the aeronautics genius behind the Voyager aircraft that flew around the world non-stop and is now housed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
His latest creation is White Knight and SpaceShipOne, a series of aircraft designed to take a crew to 100km (62.5 mi) in the air and back again to win the $10 million X-Prize for the first commercial aircraft to enter the limits of space. Given Rutan’s engineering genius, he is already being hailed as the likely frontrunner to win the X-Prize. More importantly, a design such as this could be the pathfinder to bolster the commercial and transportation uses of spaceflight.
There was also a good article in Popular Science last week about another frontrunning X-Prize entry sponsored by the creator of Doom and Quake. He’s sunk 1 million into the project already, and probably another 2 before he’s done, but the project shows promise. Take a look, if you haven’t already. 🙂