Dick Rutan -- Grand Marshall
for the 2009 Inaugural First Annual Antelope Valley Veterans' Day Parade
Dick Rutan made history in December of 1986 after completing a nine day, three minute and forty-four second around the world, non-stop and non-refueled flight, setting world’s records that remain unchallenged today.
President Ronald Reagan awarded Dick the Presidential Citizen’s Medal of Honor at a special ceremony for the Voyager Team four days after the landing. Dick Rutan was elected to serve as a member of the board for the Mojave Civilian Flight Test Center and Spaceport in Mojave, CA.
In July of 2002, Dick Rutan was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio. Dick received his solo pilot’s license and driver’s license on his 16th birthday. He flew 325 missions in Vietnam, 105 of them as a member of the Super Sabre FAC, a high-risk operation commonly known as the “MISTY’s.” He was hit by enemy ground fire on his last mission and was forced to eject from his burning F-100, to be rescued later.
Before retiring from the Air Force in 1978, Lt. Col. Rutan was awarded the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals and a Purple Heart. In 1997, the “Around the World In 80 Nights” tour was successfully completed in two small experimental Long-EZ aircraft. In 1998, his attempt at a third around-the-world record ended dramatically with his third life-saving emergency parachute jump. In 2000, Dick went on a sightseeing tour of the North Pole, but after the airplane, a Russian Antonov AN2, fell through the ice, the pleasure trip quickly turned into a rescue mission.
He set a world distance record in the EZ Rocket in 2005, is currently building a Berkut airplane and plans to set more world records in the future, and even break some of his standing world records.
World records held:
EZRocket – Longest Distance Flight by Ground-Launched Rocket Powered Airplane
Voyager-1986- Distance Around The World 40,212.14 KM
Voyager – 1986 – Speed Around The World 118.11KM/H
Voyager – 1986 – Flew for 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds without stopping!
LongEZ -1981-Distance Anchorage, AK to Grand Turk (British West Indies)
Dick Rutan has also set world records in the Vari-EZE Airplane and the Catbird Airplane
