Burt Rutan, who designed the first private manned rocket to reach space, has announced he will retire next year.    Though everyone in aviation knew him well (including this blogger's aerospace engineering wife) he became famous worldwide in 2004 when his SpaceShipOne prototype won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for being the first privately financed manned vehicle to reach space.

In 1986, his Voyager aircraft made the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling.   I shall grow mutton chops and dig out my leather jacket in his honor.