As long as this is just crackerbarrel talk and I don't have to have a solid grasp of the issues, I think by focussing on Rutan, Fossett and Branson (really?? Branson??) you're showing a lack of historical perspective. I think of Wiley Post, Boeing and Robert Watson-Watt. Post flew solo around the world in a plane made of plywood - try to get such a craft certified by the FAA today, much left aloft and flying around the world. He invented early pressurized suits. Boeing built, well, Boeing, and incredible planes like the B-17 and 747. Watson-Watt invented radar, which has done more to improve survivability among pilots and passengers than all the rest. And behind each of these men are probably thousands of more anonymous engineers who did the hard work solving tough problems. It's like the field of medicine, hard to pick just three.

My personal aviator favorite is my wife's uncle Bob, who before he flew for TWA was a barnstormer. He said on hot evenings they would buy crates of tomatoes, take up their crafts and fly over the houses of ill repute in the red light districts of East St Louis, and bomb the girls sitting out on door steps. He was also known to never let a dog fly in the cargo hold, especially on the old Constellations, he would take them into the cockpit and ride with the crew.