Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer achieved the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world without stopping or refuelling the aircraft.
Place of take off and landing: Salina Airport, Kansas, USA
Starting time: 18:47 CST (00:47 UTC), Monday, February 28th 2005
Landing time: 13:50 CST (19:50 UTC), Thursday, March 3rd 2005
The resulting flight time was about 67 hours and 2 minutes.
Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer (isn't she a beauty or what ?!!)
Steve Fossett (piloting the Global Flyer) founded two financial companies before his career as an adventurer: He made his fortune in the American financial markets with his brokerage companies Lakota Trading, Inc. and Marathon Securities, Inc.
He is a friend of British billionaire Richard Branson who owns companies such as Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic Airways and basically all companies with the word Virgin in it.
Some technical data of the Global Flyer:
Cockpit: Pressurised and large enough for one pilot
Length: 11.7m, Height: 3.6m, Wingspan: 35m
Global Flyer empty weight: 1.5t
Fuel capacity: about 8.5t
Speed: about 460km/h (290mph or 250 knots)
Ceiling height: about 15,000m
Engine: Williams FJ44-3 ATW
Thrust: about 10,200 Newtons
So if you'd level that engine vertically upwards, it would take you about 1t (=1000kg) of weight to hold it back hovering in the air.
Williams International of Walled Lake, Michigan, delivered the FJ44-3 ATW engine. Information about the engine on Virgin Atlantics' homepage (Richard Branson) can be found here: Williams.
Chelton Flight Systems delivered the instrumentation.
Advanced Composites Group Inc. (ACG) delivered the LTM45 series composite prepreg materials.
The flight route was carefully chosen to meet the criteria of the Federation Aeronautique International (FAI). Among other requirements this includes a route length of about 37,000 km.
From left to right: Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Steve Fossett
The real story:
Dick Rutan (older brother of Burt Rutan, above) and Jeana Yeager (his former wife) in fact achieved the first non-stop circumnavigation of the world without stopping or refuelling in 1986 with a similar looking plane called Voyager.
Place of take off and landing: Edwards Airforce Base, California, USA
Starting time: December 14th 1986
Landing time: December 23rd 1986
The resulting flight time was about 9 days (!) and 3 minutes.
Voyager Aircraft of 1986 (now exhibited in the Smithonian)
Technical data of the Voyager:
Cockpit: Non-pressurised and large enough for two pilots
Length: 9.90m, Height: 3.1m, Wingspan: 33.80m
Voyager empty weight: about 426 kg (939 lbs)
Fuel Capacity: about 4.4t
Speed: average 185km/h (115mph)
Ceiling height: about 6000m
Engine types: Two Continental Motors IO-240 engines
Air cooled front engine: 130 horse powers
Liquid cooled rear engine: 110 horse powers
So what's the point?
Burt Rutan constructed both planes (Voyager and Global Flyer) with his company Scaled Composites.
Burt Rutan also constructed SpaceShipOne, the first privately built spaceship. It went into space on September 29th 2004 and October 4th 2004 on suborbital flight curves, reaching altitudes of more than 100km (62 miles). By doing this twice within a fortnight SpaceShipOne won the Anzari X-Prize (worth $10 Mio.).
So, my point about these aircrafts is: The man who constructed them. That's the real story.
