Fossett, Rutan, Branson, and others...

[Squatch]

Are these people just rich people with nothing better to spend their money on or are they engaging in potentially useful private aeronautical research?

Follow up question (no poll responses for this one): who do you think will bring this kind of aeronautical technology to market quicker: government research organizations like DARPA, NASA, etc or private endeavors such as Scaled Composites, Virgin Atlantic, etc.

[Solon]

1. Here's another example of a rich person doing a crazy thing...

In his case, he was crazy enough to go to space, being the first African in space, Mark Shuttleworth. Not only that, but as an entrepreneur in technology, he's made a buttload of money, and is now giving back to the computer community as much as possible.

Here's a wiki on him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Shuttleworth

His companies website:
http://www.canonical.com/

And the Linux distro they developed with the help of many others:
http://www.ubuntu.com/Welcome

[Squatch]

2. With a name like "Shuttleworth",,,

What are you going to be when you grow up, Mark?

I'm going to be an astronaut...on a shuttle!

Well, no shit, Sherlock.