Fossett Completes Record Flight
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett touched down on U.S. soil Thursday afternoon, completing his quest to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone without stopping or refueling.
Fossett landed near Salina, Kansas, where he had set out on his record-setting flight some 67 hours earlier.
"That was something I wanted to do for a long time, a major ambition," a jubilant Fossett said immediately after emerging from the custom-built GlobalFlyer.
An equally happy Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Atlantic founder who financed the flight, grabbed a bottle of champagne from Fossett, shook it up, and sprayed down his pilot and longtime friend. Fossett then guzzled from the bottle in celebration.
A fuel system problem had raised doubt Wednesday whether Fossett could complete the 23,000-mile journey. But Fossett played down the problem overnight, and he and his flight crew agreed to keep the GlobalFlyer in the air rather than abandon the attempt and land in Hawaii.
Fossett, 60, already holds many records as a balloonist, pilot and sailor, including the record for flying solo around the globe in a balloon. He failed five times before successfully completing that flight, but he needed just one try to make the trip in a plane.
His latest around-the-world flight breaks a number of aviation records, including the longest flight by a jet. The previous record was more than 12,000 miles, set by a B-52 bomber in 1962.
There was some doubt if Fossett and his GlobalFlyer would make it back to Salina. Project manager Paul Moore said fuel sensors in the custom-built plane's 13 tanks differed from readings of how quickly its single jet engine was burning fuel. Moore said the crew had been forced to assume that 2,600 pounds of the original 18,100 pounds of fuel "disappeared" early in the flight.
But mission control determined the plane had conserved fuel because of strong tail winds and still had more than 3,200 pounds, enough to finish the global trek.
It was not clear whether there was an actual leak or just a problem with the sensors, Fossett's team said.
Fossett chose Salina for his takeoff and landing because he needed a long runway. The runway in Salina – once used to train WWII bomber crews – is about 12,000 feet long.
Fossett's GlobalFlyer was designed by the same engineer who came up with the Voyager aircraft that first completed the around-the-world trip 19 years ago with two pilots aboard.
Aviation pioneer Wiley Post made the first solo around-the-world trip in 1933, taking more than seven days and stopping numerous times. The first nonstop global flight without refueling was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, brother of GlobalFlyer designer Burt Rutan.