Fossett Planning Land Speed Run

By TOM GARDNER

RENO, Nev. – Steve Fossett has had a lifetime of daring achievements, most of them at high altitude. His latest attempt at record-setting brought him back to earth.

Fossett’s small plane disappeared as he scouted Nevada’s dry lake beds as a possible location for an attempt to break the world’s land speed record of 766.6 mph.

Fossett already had sought approval from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to use a 15-mile-long dry lake bed in remote east-central Nevada, said Chris Worthington, a bureau spokesman.

Fossett’s Marathon Racing Inc. had applied for a special recreation permit earlier this year in anticipation of making a run in Eureka County, about 225 miles east of Reno.

Just last week, the bureau announced it had completed an environmental assessment of Fossett’s plan and would seek public comment this month.

Fossett hoped his Sonic Arrow vehicle would be capable of exceeding 800 mph. Fossett initially considered taking low-speed test runs of a turbojet-powered racer at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats.

Instead, he decided to go for the record on the Diamond Valley Playa northeast of Eureka, which is relatively pristine, said Worthington.

Briton Andy Green set the record of 766.6 mph in October 1997 in the Black Rock Desert 90 miles north of Reno, the same place more than 48,000 people gathered last week for the Burning Man counterculture festival.

Worthington said he had spoken with Fossett as recently as last week. He said the adventurer thought Utah’s salt flats were too soft and the Black Rock Desert too rutted from use, so he chose the Eureka County site.

Fossett suggested he would not attempt to break the record this year, but rather spend time removing rocks from the dry lake bed and improving an access road, Worthington said.