Posted on 01/02/2005 10:16:20 AM PST by BenLurkin
MOJAVE - The Mojave-built Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is getting ready to visit the American heartland . Pilot Steve Fossett will depart from the Salina Municipal Airport in central Kansas when he sets forth on a record-setting attempt to fly solo nonstop around the world in the coming months.
Mission Control for the flight will be nearby at Kansas State University, Salina's College of Technology and Aviation.
The flight is tentatively set to take off in early February.
Unveiled at Scaled Composites' facility at the Mojave Airport a year ago, the aircraft is another distinctive design from aviation mastermind Burt Rutan. The spindly, twin-tailed airplane is designed to conquer what Virgin Chairman Sir Richard Branson called the "last great aviation record on Earth."
The Salina launch site was chosen in part for the safety margin provided by its central location.
"This will be an endurance test for me and the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer," Fossett said in announcing the site selection. "Salina's location in the middle of the USA is a major advantage. If I run out of fuel in the last thousand miles, I will be able to glide to a safe landing in any airport in western USA. If I had chosen a West Coast airport, I would risk ditching in the Pacific if I run out of fuel near the end of the round-the-world flight."
The airport also has the crucial 12,300-foot runway needed for take-off for the fuel-laden aircraft.
Fossett, a pilot and adventurer, already holds several world records, including the first solo round-the-world balloon flight.
In December, he and New Zealand pilot Terry Delore set a new glider record for straight-line distance. The pair piloted their ASH 25M high-performance sailplane between the Argentine cities of El Calafate in Patagonia and San Juan for a world record of 1,358 miles - about the same distance as from New York City to Dallas.
GlobalFlyer is a direct descendent of the Voyager, the aircraft designed by Rutan and flown nonstop around the world by his brother Dick and Jeanna Yeager in 1986.
That aircraft, which bears a striking resemblance to the newest globetrotter, now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.
Like the Voyager, GlobalFlyer is built of composite materials, features a center crew cabin and two large booms joined by an immense wing span. In 1986, Voyager used a twin-prop engine for propulsion. GlobalFlyer features a single jet engine mounted atop the pressurized crew cabin.
Both aircraft are essentially flying fuel tanks. The GlobalFlyer carries 82% of its weight in fuel on takeoff.
That high fuel load required for the nonstop flight makes takeoffs risky, putting the aircraft at the maximum tolerance of the design.
Landing is perhaps even more risky, Rutan said, because the aircraft, minus its load of fuel, may be easily buffeted by crosswinds and will be under control of a weary pilot.
The aircraft uses twin drogue chutes mounted on either side of the crew cabin to slow the aircraft for landing. Without them, the super-efficient aircraft would be unable to slow itself enough to land, Rutan said.
Almost 20 years ago, Voyager took slightly longer than nine days to circumnavigate the globe.
The GlobalFlyer, using a single jet engine, aided by the winds of the jet stream and flying above the weather problems that plagued the Voyager, is expected to make the trip in 80 hours. This is due to GlobalFlyer's greater speed capability of more than 250 knots (288 mph), compared to Voyager's roughly 100 knots (115 mph).
The attempt depends on using the speedy winds of the jet stream to have enough speed to complete the journey.
After taking off from Salina, GlobalFlyer will use the winds of the jet stream to aid its Atlantic crossing to the United Kingdom. From there, the route is south to the Mediterranean and through the Persian Gulf to Pakistan, India, China and Japan. It then will cross the Pacific to return to its starting point in Kansas.
The article makes it sound like the drogue chutes are deployed in flight. That ought to be sporty. I would love to know what the approach and touchdown speeds are.
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