Burt Rutan, more than most anyone else, embodies the spirit of the Wright Brothers. He’s practically out of central casting. Discover Magazine has an interesting interview of him. A sample:

“Is there a private space race going on?
Of course there is; the biggest competitors are the Russians. Just like in 1961 with Gagarin, the Russians have beat us on the first salvo with Dennis Tito [the world’s first space tourist]. Who would have thought in the 1960s that the first capitalists to sell tickets to let the public fly would be the damned Russians? Who would have thought that? Doesn’t that piss you off? Well, we’re going to do something about that.”