 | |
 The Rotary Rocket Roton ATV on permanent display at the Mojave Spaceport | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| Defunct | 2001 |
Key people | Gary Hudson (CEO, board) Bevin McKinney (CTO, board) Frederick Giarrusso (CFO, board) Anne Hudson (CAO) Walt Anderson (board) Tom Clancy (board) |
| Products | Roton |
Rotary Rocket Company was a rocketry company that developed the Roton concept in the late 1990s as a fully reusable single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) crewed spacecraft. The design was initially conceived by Bevin McKinney, who shared it with Gary Hudson. In 1996, Rotary Rocket Company was formed to commercialize the concept. The Roton was intended to reduce costs of launching payloads into low Earth orbit by a factor of ten.
The company gathered considerable venture capital from angel investors and opened a factory headquartered in a 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) facility at Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. The fuselage for their vehicles was made by Scaled Composites, at the same airport, while the company developed the novel engine design and helicopter-like landing system. A full-scale test vehicle made three hover flights in 1999, but the company exhausted its funds and closed in early 2001.