Great photo collection of Burt Rutan-designed planes by Flying Magazine.
He favored composites since he could mfg. prototypes almost 10x faster than metal or wood.
All of his designs appear to be subsonic, which allows non-exotic composites to be used in wing and fuselage design without concern for high skin temperatures.
One of the nice things about composites is that they’re hail-resistant (hailstones just rebound) unlike painted aluminum. However, it takes discipline to realize weight savings over metal, and long-term maintenance of composites is still an open question.
W: Burt Rutan
Composites: Tips for working on Cirrus composite structures
