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That wasn't Helios. The plane you're talking about is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. For someone who professes to hate Rutan you're remarkably ignorant of his achievements.

I never said I hated Rutan. Geez.

At the end of the day, the work done at Scaled Composites has not done a great deal for aerospace technology. From the interviews I've seen, Rutan arrogantly thinks of himself as some kind of artistic visionary able to conceive and build technologies the big guys are too "dull" to hit upon. That's a joke. In the aerospace community, he's a small fry, and the results back that up. The big "boring" companies like Rockwell, Lockheed, Grumman, Boeing, etc.. have put out all the stuff you know about: U2, SR-71, F-117, B-1, B-2, Space Shuttle, and on and on. It's not just money and resources that got the stuff done, it's people with a lot more brains and know-how than Rutan. I'll take a Kelly Johnson over a Burt Rutan any day. Prediction: Scaled Composites can't handle the rocket motor in White Knight. If it succeeds, the technical work is outsourced. And if my knowledge of Rutan's isn't encyclopedic, it's because I prefer learning about technology that is truly new and innovative, instead.