Mojave, Calif., is a unique place. As they drive north on State Highway 14, approaching the small burg of approximately 3,700 people, visitors first notice the hundreds of blades turning in windmill farms on hillsides to the west of town. Across the highway, dozens of jetliner tails sprout from the desert floor, idling in storage in the arid desert air at Mojave Airport. Mojave is also the place where aeronautical engineer and designer Burt Rutan has made aviation history several times over.
Founder of experimental design firm Scaled Composites and designer of the round-the-world-on-one-tank Voyager, Rutan late last month celebrated a new accomplishment–the first privately funded manned suborbital space flight, with the successful launch of his SpaceShipOne hybrid rocket-propelled craft on Monday, June 21. Flown by 63-year-old test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached an unofficial altitude of 328,491 feet, just over 62 miles, beating the 100 km goal by a mere 491 ft.
