• Smithsonian
    Instiution
  • Smithsonian
    Journeys
  • Smithsonian
    Store
  • Smithsonian
    Channel
  • goSmithsonian
    Visitors Guide
  • Smithsonian
    magazine

AirSpaceMag.com

  • Subscribe
  • Home
  • History of Flight
  • Flight Today
  • Military Aviation
  • Space Exploration
  • Need to Know
  • How Things Work
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Blogs
  • The Daily Planet
  • Letters To Earth
  • The Once and Future Moon
  • The View from 30,000 Feet
  • On Air

July 19, 2011

Rutan’s Last Project: What The…?


Today I read, with some head-scratching, about Burt Rutan’s latest creation, a “roadable aircraft” called Bipod. Flying cars have been built, flown, driven, and failed to sell since dinosaurs roamed the earth, yet here was the monumentally gifted designer and his company, Scaled Composites, introducing a particularly homely vehicle (twin fuselages simply make it twice as ugly).

Photo: Scaled Composites

But further reading revealed that the whole Bipod exercise is more of a shop-class project than an attempt to produce the ultimate roadable aircraft. According to AvWeb, “The four-month project was valued as a last chance for young engineers at the company to work with the legendary designer before his departure” (Rutan recently retired), and “Scaled is reportedly not interested in completing the prototype.”

Well, okay, then.




Posted By: Pat Trenner — Flight Today | Link | Comments (1)

Share/Save Tweet Digg



1 Comment »

  1. Compare the BiPod to our vehicle. We invite informed comment: http://www.carplane.com
    (We’re a Govt-sponsored aviation Co. based at Germany’s Research Airport.)

    Comment by John Brown — August 5, 2011 @ 4:05 am


RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until Airspacemag.com has approved them. Airspacemag.com reserves the right not to post any comments that are unlawful, threatening, offensive, defamatory, invasive of a person's privacy, inappropriate, confidential or proprietary, political messages, product endorsements, or other content that might otherwise violate any laws or policies. Airspacemag.com and the author also reserve the right to reprint comments submitted to the blog.

Advertisement



  • Join Us!

    1.  Twitter
    2.  Subscribe to RSS

  • Recent Posts

    • He Saved Navy Fliers from Spam
    • Spinning a Dream
    • Titanic’s Wireless Operators: The Original Texters
    • Student Rocketry Challenge Blasts Off Tomorrow
    • World’s Biggest Billboard
  • Categories

    • Aerial Reconnaissance
    • Aerospace Business
    • Air Racing
    • Air Safety
    • Air Travel
    • Airships
    • Apollo Plus 40
    • Asteroids
    • Astronomy
    • Ballooning
    • Chinese Space Program
    • Commercial Spaceflight
    • Earth Science
    • Education
    • Extrasolar Planets
    • Flight Today
    • Future Flight
    • Helicopters
    • History of Flight
    • Human Spaceflight
    • Hypersonic Research
    • Interstellar Flight
    • Lunar Exploration
    • Mars Exploration
    • Military Aviation
    • Military Space Programs
    • Missile Defense
    • Model Aviation
    • Movies and Books
    • NASA
    • Parachuting
    • Planetary Exploration
    • Propulsion Research
    • Robot Vehicles
    • Rocketry
    • Satellites
    • SETI
    • Skydiving
    • Solar Sails
    • Space Exploration
    • Space Shuttle
    • Space Tourism
    • Test Pilots
    • UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
    • Uncategorized
    • Video
    • Virtual Flight
    • Weather
  • Pages

    • About The Daily Planet
  • Blogs from AirSpaceMag.com

    • The Once and Future Moon By Paul D. Spudis
    • The View from 30,000 Feet By Steve Satre
  • Archives



Advertisement



Subscribe to Air & Space Magazine


View full archiveRecent Issues


  • 2011


  • 2010


  • 2009

Newsletter

Sign up for regular email updates from Air & Space magazine, including free newsletters, special offers and current news updates.

Subscribe Now

About Us

Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine has been delighting aerospace enthusiasts with the best writing about their favorite subject since April 1986. As an adjunct of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Air & Space matches the grand scope of the Museum, encompassing every era of aviation and space exploration. With stories that range from the Wright Brothers to the design of NASA's next lunar lander, Air & Space emphasizes the human stories as well as the technology of aviation and spaceflight.

Explore our Brands

  • goSmithsonian.com
  • Smithsonian Air & Space Museum
  • Smithsonian Student Travel
  • Smithsonian Catalogue
  • Smithsonian Journeys
  • Smithsonian Channel
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright
  • Member Services
  • About Air & Space
  • Contact Us
  • Advertising
  • Subscribe
  • RSS
  • Topics

Smithsonian Institution

Produced by Clickability