RAFE, How it all began....
- jeniferebibee
- Jun 15
- 5 min read
This year, Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience celebrates it's 10th Anniversary. In a recent talk with RAFE Founder and President, Ryszard Zadow, he describes how RAFE came into being:
"Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience started life as the Rutan Aircraft Flying Museum. The inspiration came while I was walking down the flight line at Oshkosh in 2014. There was a time when the Oshkosh flight line was literally overrun with EZ's. I mean HUNDREDS. Over time that diminished until that year when I counted about 12. Where did everyone go? I started talking about it to my fellow “canardians” and the answers I got, I didn’t like. Some justified it as “we had our time” or “it’s the cycle of life”. It was obvious that many of the people who built these great airplanes back in the peak of their popularity, which was 30 something years ago, had simply faded away from flying, lost medicals, or passed away. Though that was probably the reality of the situation, I didn’t want to accept it and decided something needed to be done to preserve the history and legacy of all this."
Where did you get the idea for a non-profit?
"I’ve been involved with the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) for most my life. I started to consider what the CAF had accomplished as a non-profit and wondered why that couldn’t be done with other types of aircraft. In the spirit of not attempting to reinvent the wheel, I took their guidelines and doctrines and simply replaced CAF with RAFM. It kinda worked.
As I talked about all this with friends,. most thought I was crazy, but a few encouraged me.
I knew i needed something more than a Varieze to garner attention to this idea and about the same time, I heard the latest owner of Greg Richters jet powered Cozy, was interested in selling it. Having been a longtime friend with it’s creator, Robert Harris of Jetguys, I was very familiar with the Cozy-Jet. I’d had a deal to buy it from Greg at one time, but the timing wasn’t right, as I was building my airport then. Greg sold it to Frank Dasmaci who really made it good reliable airplane. I went to Sacramento to visit with Frank and tell him about my crazy plan for a non-profit organization to help “preserve and promote” Burt's designs and how a 'people magnet" like a Jet Cozy would help promote the idea. Frank liked it and made me a deal I couldn’t refuse.
I contacted EAA and told them about my idea for RAFM, that I’d acquired "Kerosene Dreams" and was bringing her to OSH to announce my organization. All I was really hoping for was a good parking spot and to not get stuck in the back of the north forty somewhere sight unseen. "Kerosene Dreams" had been on the cover of Sport Aviation in 2005, I had no idea what a following this aircraft had. No sooner had "Kerosene Dreams" and I landed back in OSH, I was swarmed by fans."
What was it like flying Kerosene Dreams into OSH?
"Kersosene Dreams gulps jet fuel like crazy. It look me three stops from Texas. it was the first time I've ever use the warbird/turbine arrival into OSH. The tower cleared me in for the overhead break and I can screaming in, smoke on. After landing I was being directed all over the place and everyone I taxied by was cheering and waving. I had no idea where they intended to park me and I didn't have one of those signs you're supposed to hold up saying "homebuilt camping" or something. The marhsallers kept taxiing me around until I pulled into the papa two taxiway, and was pointed right at what is now called “Boeing Plaza”. As I rolled to a stop on papa two, a flight line volunteer walked up to the jet and started giving me the shut-down hand signal.
I figured they didn’t know what to do with me because there was no obvious place to park right there., As the modified GE T-58 wound down, I open the canopy and over the turbine noise was asked, “You’re part of the Rutan display, right?” That sounded good to me so I nodded yes and suddenly the barricade went down and volunteers were pushing me forward, right into the plaza. When I looked around, I realized all the Rutan designs were already on display there! They pushed me and "Kerosene Dreams" up next to the Starship! I couldn’t believe where I was parked!"
"For the rest of the week, I had prime real estate in the plaza. By Wednesday, I’d lost my voice. I sold all 100 t-shirts I’d brought and the resounding theme from everyone I spoke with about the idea I’d dreamed up was, “Great idea, your crazy”.
What did Burt think?
"Burt came by. He may have thought I was crazy but was polite enough not to say it (lol). He did say “A museum about me? Cool. Where is it? “. Right then I knew I used the wrong word. I explained to Burt, that we really didn’t have a museum in the traditional sense. Most aviation “museums” have airplanes on display behind ropes that will never fly again. Airplanes the visitors can’t even touch. Though we like to have an actual Burt Rutan museum one day, for now we're a "flying" museum. Our goal is to collect at least one flying example of each of Burt's designs and FLY them before the public. That’s the best way to accomplish the mission statement; “Preserve and Promote Burt Rutan’s homebuilt designs”. Burt listened intently and said, ‘Sounds like fun, good luck with that”.
Where did the name Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience come from:
"My first airplane was a Varieze, in 1983, which I still have. That Varieze, added tremendous value to my life and gave me experiences I never could've imagined. Burt didn't just sell plans for airplanes, he created something that rocked the homebuilt world. His approach to all this was was something never been done before. You didn’t just build a Rutan airplane; you became part of an EXPERIENCE. That was the right word so RAFM became RAFE, Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience."
Help us celebrate Rutan Aircraft Flying Experience's 10th Anniversary at AirVenture 2025. Each week leading into AirVenture we'll be telling a new story of RAFE and it's accomplishments , along with the people who helped make everything possible. Stay tuned for more incredible RAFE sagas.
Jenifer E. Bibee
RAFE Social Media Director
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