By Melinda Rice

   So, just who does this Andy Beal fellow think he is anyway?

   Let’s review.

   He thinks he’s a banker.

   Check. He launched his eponymous Beal Bank, headquartered on the Tollway at Arapaho, at the height—or, rather, depth—of the Texas S&L debacle. For the past five years, the bank has averaged a net income of $50 million on assets of $1.3 billion. He owns 99 percent of it.

   He thinks he’s a successful businessman.

   Check. See above, plus two decades’ worth of personal real estate dealings in four states.

   He thinks he’s a player in the esoteric game of number theory.

   Check again. In 1997, using his bank’s computers, he started looking into a problem closely tied to Fermat’s famous Last Theorem. When he announced the problem’s existence, it became known in the tight-knit world of theoretical mathematics as the Beal Conjecture.

   He thinks he can build rockets. Whoa. Reality check.

   He thinks he can build rockets?

   Yes, he does. And he’s willing to put his assets where his ambitions are.

   Although he has no background in aerospace, aviation, engineering, or any science, Beal is building a rocket in the Frisco plant he constructed and maintains without a penny of outside investment.