Jeana Yeager - Association With The Rutans

Association With The Rutans

Yeager first met Dick Rutan and his brother Burt, at an air show in Chino, California in 1980. At the time, Burt and Dick ran their own aircraft company, Rutan Aircraft Factory (now Scaled Composites). Dick Rutan had flown combat missions in Vietnam, was 14 years older than Yeager, and was a featured aerobatic flyer at the show. At that time he was chief test pilot for Burt Rutan's aircraft company, based in California's Mojave desert. Yeager and Dick Rutan became romantically involved, and Yeager joined him to work as a pilot for Burt Rutan's company, flying Rutan aircraft. Yeager set four separate speed records in Rutan EZ planes in the early 1980s.

It was Yeager who named the globe-circling project and the planned airplane "Voyager". She drafted the engineering drawings and ran the operation that kept the project financially viable. At the outset of the project, Yeager and the Voyager team managed almost entirely on donations from private individuals. Yeager underwent extensive training in ocean navigation and communications before the trip, and acted as the copilot and navigator. She also went on an Air Force water-survival training course and was one of the first civilians to successfully do so. She also qualified for a commercial pilot license, and multi-engine and instrument ratings.