In May of 2000, Dick Rutan was a last minute addition to a sightseeing airplane trek to the North Pole. The biplane, a Russian AN-2 Antonov, landed beautifully on the glass-like ice, but within seconds, the joyride was headed for disaster. Unseasonably thin, the ice quickly began to stress and crack under the weight of the plane. A quick power-up to 'go-around' and locate a thicker spot on the ice resulted in the aircraft suddenly dipping nose first through the ice, sinking toward the freezing ocean, and certain death. The wings of the AN-2 suspended the aircraft so the crew could retrieve their survival equipment that was packed in the rear of the sinking plane. For more than a dozen hours, the crew was stranded at the top of the world. In the distance, they heard a faint engine and soon would see the Twin Otter from First Air that would rescue them and return them to their families. 

In 1998, Dick Rutan attempted to make the first ever flight around the world in a balloon in the Global Hilton. That attempt ended three hours after takeoff. The balloon's helium cell ruptured (due to a manufacturer's defect) while the team floated at 30,000 feet. When the crew was at a safer 6,000 foot altitude, the crew dramatically bailed from the crippled craft. The capsule landed unmanned in Texas and burst into flames. 

Within minutes of landing on terra firma, Dick pledged to try again, and built a second capsule called World Quest. This, with a new constrained volume helium lifting system (super pressure style) held promise Dick would indeed succeed in balloon world flight. The World Quest Project ceased when a rival team captured the milestone in March of 1999. 

From April 4th to June 24th of 1997, Dick completed The Spirit of EAA Friendship World Tour, along with flight lead, Mike Melvill. This Around The World In 80 Nights flight was completed in two small experimental Long-EZ (pronounced Long Easy) aircraft that Dick and Mike built side by side almost twenty years ago. 

Since Voyager's world flight, Dick has been traveling the world on the lecture circuit, telling his tale of the magnificent Voyager project and flight and of the North Pole adventure. The Voyager story is one of tremendous courage, of vision, and of adventure and is often referred to as aviation's last first. 

As a Tactical Air Command fighter pilot during most of his two decades in the Air Force, Rutan few 325 combat missions in Vietnam, 105 of them as a member of a high-risk classified operation commonly known as the MISTY. Dick evaded enemy capture and was later rescued by the Air Force's "Jolly Green Giant" helicopter team. Before retiring from the Air Force in 1978, Lt. Col. Rutan had been awarded the Silver Star, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, 16 Air Medals and the Purple Heart. 

After retirement, Dick joined his brother, Burt, as Production Manager and Chief Test Pilot for Rutan Aircraft Factory. Dick Rutan flew the test flight development program of many military and civilian experimental aircraft and set numerous world speed and distance records in his Long-EZ, a popular Rutan designed home-built airplane. Dick was awarded the Louis Bleriot Medal by the prestigious Federation Aeronautique Internationale during a ceremony in Brussels, Belgium in recognition of these record-setting flights. 

In early 1981, Dick Rutan resigned from his brother's company and founded Voyager Aircraft, Inc., and prepared to complete the first-ever around the world, non-stop, non-refueled flight. On the morning of December 14, 1986, a fuel laden Voyager took off on the history making flight. Nine days, three minutes and forty four seconds later, Dick set the storm-battered Voyager down on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, successfully completing the six-year quest. The Voyager is now proudly suspended in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's "Milestones of Flight" gallery in our nation's capitol. 

Four days following the historic flight of the Voyager, President Ronald Reagan awarded Dick the Presidential Citizen's Medal of Honor at a special ceremony. 

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