Burt Rutan on breakthrough innovation

Ateneo Innovation and Entrepreneurship "New ideas create more and better new products and services; create more wealth."

From Ethan Zuckerman

I saw the Discovery Channel feature on air and space flight.  Two personalities stood out:    the Wright brothers who were inspired by bicycles and Rutan.  Rutan's main contribution were:  the winglet for less drag and therefore more lift that enabled shorter wing design and made Airbus 380 possible as a commercial airplance (a longer wingspan that 278 feet would make the Airbus useless in most major airports) and the feathered design (retractable wing) for the Space One re entry (He won the $l0 million dollar  Ansari X prize for using a new method in launching space flight), the canard wing design for stability...

Rutan worked hard on stable flight after some major crashes occurred due to unstable flight.

One of the major well publicized work of Rutan was his 9 day non refuel flight. It had two engines:   one for the continuous flight and the tractor engine for take off.  It was shut off during the rest of the flight.

For most of his innovative ideas, he failed to get funding and support from businessmen and patrons.  He was thus forced to get volunteer workers and work on tight budgets (ie become entrepreneurial)

Some of his ideas on innovation

l.   The manager's goal is to set goals and get funding;
2.  Set the goals high;  50% must say the goal can not be achieved;
3.  Reward the achievement;
4.  Leave them alone
5.  Expect multiple failures
6.  Have fun

Breakthroughs happen in the environment of innovation.  Breakthrough define the human species;  without breakthrough, we live in mediocrity.   That environment is when there is crisis.  Breakthrough is when unexpected happen.  He thus quotes aircraft designer Werner Von Braun, "Research is when you dont know what  I am doing"  (This reminds me of the quote yesterday on inspirational video:   "The best photos is the one I have not taken yet <or I will take tomorrow>

He thinks NASA is ill prepared for breakthroughs nor innovation.  Innovation does not occur when the customer is smarter than the supplier. He said that since  1973 there has been a collapse of genuine innovation in space travel.  Since then, it is the Space Shuttle....

What do you think?

Is NASA criticism a sour grape?