"The beauty of it is that the airplanes I designed until I was 20 years old were airplanes that didn't carry people," says Burt Rutan, the legendary aviation innovator. Working on models freed Rutan from traditional solutions and allowed him to take as many risks as his creativity demanded, and the results have changed aviation history. Trained as an aeronautical engineer, Rutan worked for the Air Force and the Bede Test Center before forming the Rutan Aircraft Factory in 1974. The company became a light-aircraft pioneer, eventually finding its most remarkable success in the graphite, twin-engine Voyager, which sits in the Smithsonian as the first (and only) plane to fly around the world without refueling.

In 1982 Rutan founded Scaled Composites, Inc., which has become the world's most productive aerospace prototype development company. Its achievements include aircraft such as Beechcraft's Triumph light executive jet, Rutan's own Powerbook-controlled Boomerang plane, and a 40 percent scale prototype B-2 bomber. They also include more earthbound accomplishments such as the rigid, winglike sail for Dennis Conner's Sail America America's Cup winner, and General Motors 1992 ultralite prototype car. Among Scaled's projects is the Proteus, an all-composite, 95-foot wingspan, tail-first plane. The plane, which debuted at the Paris Air Show, is intended as a low-flying satellite to provide telecommunications services to cities.

Rutan holds a number of patents and has received many awards over the years for his various innovations, including citations from the United States Air Force Association, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Royal Aeronautical Society.