Dick RutanCommander of the World's First Non-Stop, Unrefueled Flight
As a Tactical Air Command fighter pilot during most of his two decades in the Air Force, Dick Rutan few 325 combat missions in Vietnam, 105 of them as a member of a high-risk classified operation commonly known as the MISTY's." While on his last strike reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam in September of 1968, he was hit by enemy ground fire, and forced to eject from his burning F-100. Dick evaded enemy capture and was later rescued by the Air Force's "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter team. Before retiring from the Air Force in 1978, Lt. Col. Rutan had been awarded the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals and the Purple Heart.
After retirement, Dick joined his brother, Burt, as Production Manager and Chief Test Pilot for Rutan Aircraft Factory. Dick Rutan flew the test flight development program of many military and civilian experimental aircraft and set numerous world speed and distance records in his Long-EZ, a popular Rutan designed home-built airplane. Dick was awarded the Louis Bleriot Medal by the prestigious Federation Aeronautique Internationale during a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium in recognition of these record-setting flights.
In early 1981, Dick Rutan resigned from his brother's company and founded Voyager Aircraft, Inc., and prepared to complete the first-ever around the world, non-stop, non-refueled flight. On the morning of December 14, 1986, a fuel laden Voyager took off on the history making flight. Nine days, three minutes and forty four seconds later, Dick set the storm-battered Voyager down on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, successfully completing the six-year quest. The Voyager is now proudly suspended in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's "Milestones of Flight" gallery in our nation's capitol and Dick Rutan was awarded the Presidential Citizen's Medal of Honor.
Since Voyager's world flight, Dick has been traveling the world on the lecture circuit, telling his tale of the magnificent Voyager project and flight and of his North Pole adventure. The Voyager story is one of tremendous courage, of vision, and of adventure and is often referred to as 'aviation's last first.'
