Posted on 02/26/2005 4:48:58 AM PST by Arkie2
Look up.
Waaaaaaay up.
If the weather cooperates — and if you've got a decent telescope or truly astonishing eyesight, you might just catch a glimpse of history in the faint contrail of a high-flying jet on Monday.
At the controls of that jet will be one man, trying to crack arguably the final major aviation milestone: to fly around the world, alone, in a single non-stop flight.
"This is the last great aviation record to be had," said Lori Levin, spokesperson for the Virgin Group, sponsor of the flight. "No one has ever flown solo around the world (non-stop)."
As of late yesterday, all indications were that the weather might be favourable for the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer to take to the skies on Monday.
Its planned flight path will take it from Kansas, past Chicago, Toronto and Montreal before it heads across the Atlantic and beyond.
Some three days later (after traversing the Middle East, China and the Pacific), the world's most efficient jet — along with an exhausted but elated pilot — will touch down on the same runway.
"He's hoping to do it in under 80 hours, based on the jet and based on the course that he's going to be travelling. We're hoping it will be around 72 (hours)," said Levin, speaking from Princeton, New Jersey.
`He' is none other than Steve Fossett, an extraordinary pilot who can fly just about anything. (You might recall his dogged pursuit to go around the world in a high-altitude balloon. After five tries, he succeeded on his 6th attempt in 2002.)
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
You're half right; one pod is for jet fuel, but the other is a thermos bottle for all the coffee the pilot will need to stay awake.
;-)
From the Global Flyer websits:
- Gross Weight: 22,000 lbs
- Empty Weight: 3,350 lbs
Steve is also a sailing legend; he holds a number of world records, including (last year) sailing around the world in under 60 days.
More info on him at: http://www.fossettchallenge.com/
And Proteus.
And prototypes and proof-of-concept machines for several GA startups, including Visionaire (RIP), Adam (still hanging in there), Toyota, Honda, and several others.
And UAVs.
And classified/military projects. And managing all these projects, including the various taskings for Proteus.
| Scaled Project | First Flight | Craft Name |
| 202 | 1995 | Boomerang |
| 226 | 1993? | Raptor [UAV] |
| 247 | 1996 | Visionaire Vantage |
| 271 | 1997 | Williams International V-Jet |
| 281 | 1998 | Proteus |
| 309 | 2000 | Adam Model 309 Proof of Concept |
| 311 | 2004 | Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer |
| 316 | 2003 | SpaceShipOne |
| 317 | -NA- | SpaceShipOne Simulator (not certain) |
| 318 | 2003 | White Knight |
| 346 | 2007? | "SpaceShipTwo?" |
The rapid-fire nature of these model numbers, almost all for craft that have flown in the last ten years, should give some idea of what Scaled can do. Don't forget that during the same period they flew the Toyota project, the Honda project, DC-X [unmanned SSTO demonstrator], Pegasus {air-launched sat booster], Roton ATV [proof of concept for a gyro/helicopter space descent vehicle], Freewing [UAV], another UAV for Bell, all of which I dunno the project numbers (I have Roton's written down on another puter).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
"Any time not spent, preparing to Fly or Flying is WASTED TIME"
Wow. What other attempts at suicide have you made?
I turned on short final - the sky was blue, and beautiful.
As I made the turn, I was busy adjusting the flaps, talking to the tower, monitoring the airspeed, and adjusting the manifold pressure. The gear was down.
Satisfied that everything inside the aircraft was in order, I looked up - and time stopped.
There was a bald eagle, between me and the sun, wings spread.
The light was filtering through its pinion feathers, creating a rainbow of brown and gold in my cockpit.
I held my breath.
It was - an indescribable sight. The light, the bird of prey, the blue sky - and one of us was going to die.
Thank god those Cessna's have huge bird blenders on the front.
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