In Fact, Things Are Going Better Than Ever Before

ANN REALTIME UPDATE 03.15.06 1415 EST: Steve Fossett's latest quest to set yet another aviation record -- and keep the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer in the air, and out of a museum, in the process -- is progressing smoothly, mission controllers at Kansas State University - Salina tell ANN.

In fact, at more than 24 hours into the flight to set a new closed-circuit distance record, everyone involved reports they are very pleased with how well things have been going so far.

Fossett (below, posing in the cockpit he has become VERY familiar with by now) made landfall just before 9 pm Tuesday night (local CST) over the west coast of Africa. About an hour later, he reached his filed cruise altitude for 45,000 feet after an initial climb of just over 15.5 hours.

The online GlobalFlyer flight tracker -- available at K-State's website (at the FMI link below) -- currently shows Fossett over India, flying at 308 knots at an altitude of just over 47,400 feet.

Controllers report that Fossett continues to feel good, relying on his standard GlobalFlyer diet: 12 pounds of water, three pounds of lemon-lime Gatorade, and 24 cans of French Vanilla diet milkshakes.

Most importantly, so far there is still no indication of any of the fuel problems that came up in the last two GlobalFlyer record attempts. Fuel burn is on track, at about 295 pounds per hour throughout the long climb to altitude. That will slow to about 100 pph as the flight progresses.

Speaking of fuel, the GlobalFlyer utilizes a specialized mix: JP4 in the wing tanks, and JP8 in the boom tanks. JP4 has better cold operation characteristics, and it takes longer to gel. This is optimal for use in the wing tanks, as the fuel will be exposed to extremely cold temperatures at high altitude.

The JP8 is used in the boom tanks and it is a highly refined fuel. JP8 was used instead of Jet-A because of the increased fuel density, allowing more fuel to be placed in the boom tanks and increasing the distance the aircraft can fly.

Upon successful completion of this latest mission, the GlobalFlyer -- which will have close to 100,000 miles under its wings by the time Fossett lands in Salina -- is reportedly bound for the Smithsonian... unless, that is, Fossett can find another mission for the Rutan-designed, single-engine plane that has served him so well.

FMI: www.salina.k-state.edu/globalflyer, Read The KSU-Salina Mission Team's Blog