Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

Burt Rutan, who retired in April from Scaled Composites, the company he founded in Mojave, Calif., has joined with Paul Allen in a plan to build the largest aircraft in the world. Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates, funded the SpaceShipOne effort that successfully boosted the first privately funded manned rocket outside the Earth’s atmosphere.


Now Allen’s new company, Stratolaunch Systems, will leverage similar technology to deliver payloads, including people, to Earth orbit. The system includes a six-engine carrier aircraft with a 380-plus-foot wingspan and more than 1.2 million-pound gross weight, which will haul aloft a multi-stage air-launchable booster, built by Space Exploration Technologies.&nbsp;


Scaled Composites will build the carrier aircraft at a new facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port, and first flight is expected within five years. Huntsville, Ala.-based Dynetics is responsible for the mating and integration system.


At the Dubai Air Show in November, Rutan gave no hint that he had been planning the Stratolaunch effort, but did discuss his design of a personal ground-effect aircraft that he planned to operate in and around rivers and lakes near his new home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Rutan Tapped To Design World’s Largest Aircraft

Burt Rutan has joined with Paul Allen in a plan to build the largest aircraft in the world

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