Millionaire Fossett bids for record flight

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Millionaire U.S.
adventurer Steve Fossett took off in an experimental plane on
Wednesday on an 80-hour flight that he hopes will set a nonstop
distance record.

The GlobalFlyer aircraft, which has a wingspan as wide as
an 11-story building is tall, lifted off around 7:20 a.m. (1220
GMT) after rolling ponderously down a rented runway used by
NASA’s space shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Fossett, 61, had initially planned to start the
record-breaking attempt on Tuesday but had to delay by a day
due to a fuel leak.

Thanks to the ability to fly above weather and a stronger
propulsion system, Fossett is out within about three days to
break by 700 miles the 26,366-mile (42,431-km) nonstop distance
record set by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager on a nine-day flight
in 1986.

Fossett also aims to surpass a 1999 ballooning distance
record set in 1999 by Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard.

After takeoff, he was to fly over the Atlantic, cross
Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Japan, the Pacific Ocean,
Mexico and the United States and then back over the Atlantic
before landing at Kent International Airport outside London.

Fossett needs to get GlobalFlyer to an altitude of about
45,000 feet to take advantage of the high-speed jet stream
flowing west to east over the Northern Hemisphere.

Without the jet stream’s tail winds the plane will not have
enough fuel for its record-breaking, nonstop journey, said the
aircraft’s lead engineer, Jon Karkow.

Conditions in the jet stream did not appear entirely
favorable early on Wednesday but a successful flight may still
be possible, he said. “It is a big concern. We might not be
able to make it to Kent,” Karkow said.

GlobalFlyer’s mission controllers will attempt to tweak its
route to take advantage of tail winds, but because Fossett must
fly over specific sites for the record, there is not much
latitude for change.

Engineers detected no sign of the fuel leaks that plagued
GlobalFlyer last year at the start of Fossett’s successful bid
to make the first solo, nonstop flight around the world.

Wednesday’s takeoff was not without drama. Seabirds flew in
front of the plane seconds after it left the runway and two
were hit, but Karkow and pilots aboard an observation aircraft
found no signs of damage to GlobalFlyer.

Fossett, who had just left NASA’s 15,000-foot (4,572-meter)
runway with little room to spare, did not even notice, Karkow
said. The plane weighs more than 11 tonnes when fully fueled.

In addition to his record-breaking flight last year,
Fossett holds various ballooning and sailing records.

GlobalFlyer is sponsored by Richard Branson’s Virgin
Atlantic Airways.