Scaled Composites: Flying the Impossible

Fighter Pilot Podcast

E. Vincent "Jell-O" Aiello, Retired U.S. Navy Fighter Pilot

History, Personal Journals, Technology, Society & Culture, Government, Leisure, Aviation

4.9 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 116 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Few companies in aviation history can claim an average of one new aircraft flown every year for four decades. Enter Scaled Composites.

Founded in 1982 by legendary designer Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites specializes in designing, building, and flight-testing proof-of-concept, prototype, and milestone-achieving aircraft—often pushing the edge of what’s thought possible.

On this episode, Scaled Composites President Greg Morris and engineering test pilot Justin Gillen pull back the curtain on this extraordinary organization. They explain how Scaled safely develops and flies so many radically different aircraft, why real-world flight test is far more disciplined than Hollywood would have you believe, and what it takes to turn bold ideas into first flights.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Scaled mission is that rapid development and innovation and then maturation, both of new aircraft design concepts and of immature technology, right?
0:10.7	But then also what we really know for is new aircraft.
0:13.2	Scaled is 43 years old and has flown more than 43 new types of aircraft in that time period.
0:19.0	Sam Lange! new types of aircraft in that time period.
0:35.5	Sam Lach is working at all right. Go!
0:35.5	Oh, fine, and me, boys.
0:51.8	If I challenged you to name an aerospace company that flew, on average, one new aircraft every year of its first 40 years in business, you might rightly think of Boeing, Lockheed, or even Airbus.
0:56.3	But by this measure, these behemoths can't come close to the Mojave California-based subject of today's episode, Scaled Composites.
1:01.6	Hello and welcome to the fighter pilot podcast, the internet show that explores the fascinating
1:05.6	world of air combat, the aircraft, the weapon systems, and always, most importantly, the people.
1:12.3	I'm your host, Vincent Aiello, Callsangello, and to help unpack this intriguing company this
1:17.7	week, I am glad to once again be joined by our once U.S. Air Force flight test engineer,
1:23.4	and now tech nerd extraordinaire, Ken Katz.
1:26.7	Prime Time, welcome back to the show.
1:28.4	And you know I mean that in love, buddy.
1:30.6	Absolutely.
1:31.3	Hey, Jello.
1:31.9	It's great to be back.
1:32.8	And I want to say I enjoyed the Navy and Marine episodes over the last two months.
1:37.0	Great stuff.
1:38.0	That was great stuff.
1:39.1	And we ran an episode every Monday for each of those months because the Navy's 250th and the Marine Corps
	...

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