An Interview with Mike Melvill

Article

“An Interview with Mike Melvill,” Interview by Jerry Burke
Published in Quest Volume: 33 #2 (2026)

Abstract

When you hear the names Chuck Yeager, Scott Crossfield, Neil Armstrong, and Joe Engle, legendary test pilots comes to mind. Unlike these military test pilots, another name should be added. Mike Melvill was a South African pilot hired by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan to test the experimental aircraft he was developing. The job was no less dangerous and pushed the edge as much as his better-known colleagues. The achievement he was best known for was flying SpaceShipOne, the first privately designed piloted spacecraft to reach the edge of space.

Dubbed “The Unlikeliest Astronaut” by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Mike did not finish high school and failed a math course. He raced motorcycles and at age 17 became a machinist, moved to the United States, and became the Lead Test Pilot for Scaled Composites. Over his career, he tested nearly every aircraft designed by Scaled Composites, logging more than 7,000 hours of flight in 130 fixed-wing aircraft and seven helicopters. Mike Melvill died in 2026 at the age of 85. Interviews and oral histories by him were hard to come by. But Quest has been given permission to publish this rare 2011 interview.

Melvill held court by the planes at the 2011 Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture event in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he discussed his career, his relationship with legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan, and his historic role in the flight of SpaceShipOne with legendary journalist Jerry Burke, of WBAY-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A long-time volunteer at EAA AirVenture, he hosted Plane Talk, which was broadcast to attendees at the event. The following is a transcript from a video shot by Marco Crivellari, a Virginia-based pilot who homebuilt a Long-EZ experimental aircraft, designed by Burt Rutan.

Citation

Melvill, Mike. “An Interview with Mike Melvill.” Interview by Jerry Burke. Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 33, no. 2 (2026): 19-26.