Is it me or is there not much respect for Burt Rutan

He invented the feathered configuration which enables a safe spacecraft capable of allowing the average person to fly in space.

He is largely ignored by the media. When I went to the Air and Space Museum for his donation of SpaceShip One, there were only a few people there. Yet there were parades for Alan Shepards 15 minute trip into space and that was only his acheivement. Do people not want to go to space and would rather watch others go?

I own and fly often a small aircraft, and I have a friend who owns and fly a Rutan Defiant, twin engine canard aircraft. Amongst pilots we know how creative Burt Rutan is and how amazing his aircraft are. The Rutan Defiant flies like an arrow but needs a much longer runway that us, the "slow and low" aircraft. This is the price you have to pay for the canard wing configuration.

But I agree with you, he should be better known to the larger public.

His airplanes are ingenious and he is well respected, at least with aviation fans. However his foray into space was a suborbital flight with no intention of going orbital anytime in the future so it's seen by the public as a technical success and not a true spaceflight. Space crafts like the Dragon capsul brings a promise of a future in space, Rutan simply reaped the X prize the easy way and gives joy rides into space.