Well, There He Goes Again: Fossett To Attempt Yet Another Record | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-05.13.24

Airborne-NextGen-05.07.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.08.24 Airborne-FlightTraining-05.09.24

Airborne-Unlimited-05.10.24

Fri, Mar 10, 2006

Well, There He Goes Again: Fossett To Attempt Yet Another Record

Closed-Circuit Flight To Take Place By The End Of March

The word out of Kansas is... he's baaaack. Adventure junkie Steve Fossett (right) is headed back to Salina, where he's set to try for yet another aviation record.

This time, the 61-year old Fossett will try for the closed circuit distance record of 24,931 miles. A closed-circuit flight is one that begins and ends at the same point, and the current record was set by Dick Rutan aboard Voyager's original nonstop around-the-world flight back in 1986. That flight took off and landed at Edward's Air Force Base in California.

During his record-setting solo round-the-world flight in March 2005, Fossett traveled approximately 23,000 miles on a closed circuit course from Salina, KS -- not quite enough to break the closed circuit record. Last February, Fossett beat that distance by over 3,000 miles during the Ultimate Flight... but that flight landed in England, after Fossett overflew his takeoff point at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

For his latest record attempt, Fossett will once again take off from the Salina (KS) Municipal Airport's 12,300-foot runway... but this time, he'll fly the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer on a slightly longer round-the-world course to clinch the closed-circuit record.

Art Greenfield of the National Aeronautic Association tells the Wichita Eagle the flight could launch as early as next week, weather permitting.

In addition to adding another ribbon to Fossett's trophy case, the latest record flight will also spotlight the aviation department at Kansas State University-Salina. While the school also played a supporting role for Fossett's 2005 around-the-world flight, this time around there will be no Virgin Atlantic staff on hand -- meaning it's K-State-Salina's show, for everything from maintenance to mission control.

Fossett reportedly asked the university last week to provide support for the latest record attempt.

"Steve Fossett is giving K-State at Salina a fantastic opportunity by asking us to lead the effort on the ground to make his next record attempt successful," said Dennis Kuhlman, dean of the university's Salina campus. "By choosing K-State at Salina to provide support for his next attempt, he is doing just that -- giving our students a huge part to play in one of the most exciting high-tech projects in the world today."

FMI: www.globalflyer.com, www.k-state.edu

Advertisement

More News

Bolen Gives Congress a Rare Thumbs-Up

Aviation Governance Secured...At Least For a While The National Business Aviation Association similarly applauded the passage of the FAA's recent reauthorization, contentedly recou>[...]

The SportPlane Resource Guide RETURNS!!!!

Emphasis On Growing The Future of Aviation Through Concentration on 'AFFORDABLE FLYERS' It's been a number of years since the Latest Edition of Jim Campbell's HUGE SportPlane Resou>[...]

Buying Sprees Continue: Textron eAviation Takes On Amazilia Aerospace

Amazilia Aerospace GmbH, Develops Digital Flight Control, Flight Guidance And Vehicle Management Systems Textron eAviation has acquired substantially all the assets of Amazilia Aer>[...]

Hawker 4000 Bizjets Gain Nav System, Data Link STC

Honeywell's Primus Brings New Tools and Niceties for Hawker Operators Hawker 4000 business jet operators have a new installation on the table, now that the FAA has granted an STC f>[...]

Echodyne Gets BVLOS Waiver for AiRanger Aircraft

Company Celebrates Niche-but-Important Advancement in Industry Standards Echodyne has announced full integration of its proprietary 'EchoFlight' radar into the e American Aerospace>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC