Famous pilot refuels in Great Bend

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Great Bend Municipal Airport is home to many airline passengers, but few are as well known in today's aviation world as a pilot who stopped for refueling on Monday afternoon.
Dick Rutan, the pilot who made the first nonstop flight around the world, landed in Great Bend on his way back to the Mojave Desert from Oshkosh AirVenture, a massive air show for experimental aircraft in Wisconsin that ended Saturday.
“He was grateful for the hospitality,” said airport director Martin Miller.
Rutan flew his small red, white and blue Berkut 360, a two-seater home-built aircraft. The aircraft is recognizable by its canard wings (the smaller wings are located at the front of the aircraft) and pusher propeller at the rear.
Rutan is probably best known for his round-the-world flight without refueling in December 1986. He made the flight with Jeane Yeager in the Voyager. But the pilot and adventurer has made other daring flights as well.
In December 2005, he flew in a rocket-powered aircraft from the Mojave Spaceport to California City Airport. Before that, in 1999, he made the first solo flight around the world in a hot air balloon.
Born in July 1938 in Loma Lind, California, Rutan served as a fighter pilot with the Tactical Air Command in Vietnam. He flew 325 missions, some of them classified. He was shot down once and avoided capture until he was rescued.
He received numerous medals, including the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. Rutan retired from the Air Force in 1978 as a lieutenant colonel.
Rutan has faced survival situations more than once. In May 2000, he was on a sightseeing flight over the North Pole. The plane landed, but broke into the ice and began to sink. The crew survived for 12 hours before help arrived.
Rutan was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, in July 2002.