As a Director and member of the NAA Contest and Records Board, I was selected to be the Directing Official and was able to witness first hand the preparation, team work and technology that made a very special flight possible.

One week ago today at 9:05:03 CST, the Global Flyer coasted into a perfect landing at home base ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Salina, Kansas.  In the cockpit, Steve Fosset was completing his third trip around the world in the Global Flyer, each time the objective was to set a new world distance or speed record.

This time it was for the Absolute World Record for Distance Over a Closed Circuit without Landing.  The previous record was set by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in 1986 for 40,212.14 kilometers or 24,986.73 miles.  As Steve glided in for his landing at Salina, Kansas he claimed a distance of 40,706.56 kilometers or 25,293.95 miles, exceeding the old record by 1.23%, having spent a total of 74 hours, 26 minutes and 26 seconds in the air.



After all that time in a very small cockpit?¢‚Ǩ¬¶



Greetings?¢‚Ǩ¬¶



The claim, together with the flight and observer data, has now been submitted to the National Aeronautic Association (NAA) for approval.  After receiving NAA approval, it will be submitted to the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) for final approval as a World Record.

Some Observations

The Global Flyer was designed to be just that, namely it was built to fly around the world nonstop without refueling.  The design challenge was to build an airframe that was light, had very low drag characteristics, was incredibly strong and was able to lift almost 6 times its own weight in fuel.  I am not aware of any other aircraft that has achieved such a ratio of empty to gross weight.  It was built aerodynamically as a very efficient glider but with every cubic inch of space used for fuel.  The only material that would meet these requirements was epoxy bonded carbon fibre that has been applied in military aircraft with great success, and is now being employed in the latest commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787.  The designer, who has a track record for innovative and advanced design, was Burt Rutan who also pioneered commercial space flight with SpaceShipOne and designed the aircraft that set the existing record.  A twin fuselage boom approach was decided upon to provide the necessary capacity and strength for carrying the fuel.  Fuel tanks are located in the forward and rear sections of the booms, inboard wings and outboard wings.  A small feeder tank is located below the engine.



A turbojet engine is the only type of engine that can provide the kind of reliability necessary for extended, over-water flying.  In addition, this reliability also permits a single engine design.  The Williams FJ44, widely used on business jet aircraft, fit the requirement perfectly.  It has a high power-to-weight ratio, was very reliable, was very fuel efficient, had the right amount of thrust and had a solid track record behind it.

Fueling the aircraft followed a process that took up to 24 hours.  Most of the fuel was loaded while the aircraft was in the hangar.  It was placed on scales so an accurate picture of the amount of fuel and its distribution was easily measured.  Weighing was also a necessary part of qualifying the aircraft for a record attempt in order to determine its category for record purposes.  The booms had to be level when fueling so the nose was raised and the nose wheels placed on scales.





After most of the fuel was loaded, the aircraft was towed to the end of the runway for final preparation.  This was done the night before take-off.  The aircraft was then placed on scales again and the final topping off of fuel took place.

The cockpit is a pressure vessel with the pressure supplied by bleed air from the engine compressor.  There is very little direct, forward visibility as seen below.  The pilot depends upon downward and side views to maneuver the aircraft on the ground.



The door:



The instrument panel:



After final fueling, the aircraft was rolled off the scales and preparations were made for departure.  The fuel tanks were sealed and marked.  The two GPS flight data recorders were placed on board and sealed.

A final briefing took place at mission control.  Mission control was located at the Kansas State University campus located on the airport property.  Kansas State College of Technology and Aviation provided support for Mission Control and ground support.  The final route had been prepared and signed off by Steve and myself.  The route was designed to take advantage of the jet stream as much as possible except for the flight across the Pacific.  In order to attain the mileage necessary, Steve had to fly down to the equator after crossing Japan.  There is no jet stream there at this time of the year so his progress slowed down considerably before turning north for the last portion of the flight home.  There were a total of 54 waypoints that had to be flown over to add up to the necessary mileage.  Estimated time: 74 ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú 76 hours.  Mission control had continuous tracking of the flight available over the Internet and interfaced with traffic control as much as possible.  Contact with Steve was by Iridium satellite phone and the link through the Iridium system had been checked out.



Why Salina, Kansas?  Salina airport is an ex-Air Force base with runways and hangars capable of handling B-52?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s.  The main runway is north/south and is 12,300 feet long.  The Global Flyer needs at least 10,000 feet to take of with full fuel and a temperature of 32 degrees F or lower.  That day it was 22 degrees and everyone was feeling the chill but it was what we needed.  Just daylight and time to go.  I was escorted by airport staff to the 9,000 foot mark on the runway to observe the lift-off.



Nine thousand feet and still on the ground!  Finally at 10,500 feet, the Global Flyer was airborne.  Steve was on his way.



Next the focus was Mission Control and the hours of waiting for his return.



Crossing India, China and Japan:



Thousands of miles and endless hours of ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú nothing:



Now he is back, mission accomplished.  The black boxes will tell the story of the flight in infinite detail.  The Global Flyer is back in the hangar and the specialists descend upon it to perform post flight maintenance.

The seals are broken on the data recorders and the data is downloaded onto CD?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s for analysis.  One recording proves to be faulty with data drop-outs.  There is a reason for carrying two!  The second data set looks good, another sigh of relief.

The Bottom Line

The Global Flyer is one hell of a machine.  It represents the state of the art in materials, design and trade-offs to achieve a very specific goal.  But, the machine is only part of the equation.  Steve Fossett, the pilot, has demonstrated unbelievable endurance, skill and persistence in single-handedly doing what no other person has ever done.

Now we wait for the confirmation that Steve has officially accomplished The Triple Crown of Aviation:

Absolute Distance without Landing.
Absolute Speed around the World, Nonstop, non- refueled.
Absolute Distance over a Closed Circuit without Landing ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú in process.