2/28/2005
Fosset Around the World
Reuters
U.S. Adventurer Sets Off on Solo Global Flight
Mon Feb 28, 2005 08:42 PM ET
SALINA, Kan. (Reuters) - Steve Fossett, who sailed around the globe in a balloon three years ago, took off from a Kansas airfield on Monday trying to circle the Earth nonstop in a one-engine plane without refueling.
Fossett rolled down the runway at 7:45 p.m. EST from Salina Municipal Airport before about 200 people.
Among those on hand was Virgin Atlantic Airways chief Richard Branson who wants to send tourists into space. He is bankrolling the flight, has put his brand on the experimental aircraft and flew in a contingent of journalists aboard one of his airline’s 747s to cover the event.
Fossett hopes to touch down back in Kansas in a little less than three days after covering 23,000 miles at altitudes of up to 52,000 feet — and is designated as an alternate landing spot for the Space Shuttle.
Fossett’s craft consists of a 7-foot-long pressurized, cigar-shaped cabin suspended beneath a single Williams turbofan jet engine. The cabin is bracketed by two large outrigger-like booms farther out on the 114-foot wing holding the landing gear and fuel. At takeoff, the flight group said, fuel would take up 83 percent of the aircraft’s weight.
Filed by Ken at 8:15 pm under General
