Okay Larry, dealing with Keith's quibbles one by one -

First off, the earlier sub-orbital flights were test flights of fully orbital spacecraft. Rutan is the first to want to go specifically sub-orbital and no further -

"first non-stop" around the world flight - depends on whether you consider in-air re-fueling a "stop". I wouldn't, but others would. Does it really matter?

I don't know if Scaled Composites engineers were involved with Orbital Sciences Corporation "Pegasus" launch vehicle, but if they weren't, it would surprise me. If iit came from the interview, then likely so... but in an interview sometimes attribution gets confused...

If you're working a trans-Atlantic telephone, with no illustrations, confusion will occur - viz the comment on the "capsule" -

I wish Mr. Rutan the best of luck on his fine engineering demonstration - but it seems to me to have limited commercial application beyond tourism. Perhaps it could play a role in Earth Observation or some such, but then who knows...

When you turn out page after page of copy, minor slips will occur. One tries to avoid them, but it's the nature of the field, trying to bridge the gap between the engineers and your readers...

My guess, and its nothing more than that, is that neither the Post nor the Beeb intend to tow Mr Cowling's line, and thus the attacks... Do you have any guesses as to Keith has begun doing this?

ep