Editing Rotary Rocket (section)

{{Short description|American rocketry company}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Rotary Rocket Company
| logo = Rotary-Rocket-logo.png
| image = Rotaryrocket-061114-01-8.jpg
| image_caption = The Rotary Rocket Roton ATV on permanent display at the [[Mojave Spaceport]]
| founded = 1996
| defunct = 2001
| industry = [[Aerospace]]
| key_people = [[Gary Hudson (engineer)|Gary Hudson (CEO, board)]]<br />Bevin McKinney (CTO, board)<br />Frederick Giarrusso (CFO, board)<br />Anne Hudson (CAO)<br />[[Walter Anderson (entrepreneur)|Walt Anderson (board)]]<br />[[Tom Clancy|Tom Clancy (board)]]
| products = Roton
}}

'''Rotary Rocket Company''' was a [[rocket]]ry 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 (engineer)|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 investor]]s and opened a factory headquartered in a {{convert|45000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} 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.