Burt Rutan, in his own words

On October 9th, just five days after Scaled Composites won the Ansari X Prize, the Space Frontier Foundation gave the company its “Vision to Reality Award” during the organization’s annual conference on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. While Scaled technically won the award for SpaceShipOne’s pre-X Prize suborbital flight on June 21, the award was also a celebration of the two recent X Prize flights.

I found this part on Rutan and Gov. certification interesting

Why certification of suborbital vehicles is a good thing: You have to have certification, and it’s the cheapest thing you ever buy. First of all, it costs you between nine and sixteen percent more because the FAA is there. Forget these guys who say certification makes it ten times as expensive. I know what it takes. I asked Beechcraft when they were done certifying the structure on the Starship [aircraft], which is a tough thing to do. I asked them what if there was no FAA, what if you, Beechcraft, did your testing only for your ethics. Now your ethics mean that it’s not a good thing to kill our customers. What did certification really cost you? They said. “That’s a really good question, and we think we have the data for a very good answer.” They huddled and came back with a report for me about a week later. That report showed me every test, every test article, and every report that the FAA insisted that they do that they didn’t think be done. They took everything that was in dispute—in other words, I wouldn’t have done that but the FAA made me do it—and it came out to be nine percent. Without that [certification] you can’t survive as an industry: you can’t survive the first accident, and you can’t insure. So you got to have government certification that protects passengers. Certification is not expensive because of the FAA. And I’ll tell you something, it’s the very best thing you can buy when you have an accident and somebody gets killed. The plaintiff’s attorney’s job is to convince that non-technical jury that you did a sloppy job, that you didn’t do enough for his safety. The very best thing you can do is say that there are specific government certification requirements and I met every one of them, and you even get to bring the government in to certify to the jury that you passed all of the safety requirements. Without that you can’t survive as an industry: you can’t survive the first accident, and you can’t insure. So you got to have government certification that protects passengers.

My brother worked for Rutan for a short period and used to carry around a little 1 x 1 stick about 3 ft long, he called it a convincer or a worry stick or whatever, the point of the stick was that anytime that you feel worried about the strength of the components that these A/C are built from all you do is set it on something and jump up and down on it, and it wouldn't break. (That three foot stick weighs about as much as a pencil)

Sounds like the first step taken by the makers of Flu Vaccine (Swine Flu, no fault insurance)

I see where it has gotten them, the Government is very good at spending it has no mechanism for saving or becoming efficient.

Besides I believe there are now courses at any Law School that teach you how to MILK the Government's bottomless pockets.

Don't get me wrong Rutan is a Hero of Aviation and now is Historically equivalent to the Wright Brothers, I just don't like the Government Partnership (the Lawyers first inroads)

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