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 ...
May he have a good tail wind (jet stream), all the way!
Good pic. Thanks. It almost looks conventional! I'm so used to seeing Burt's creations that look like they came from off the planet.
The best of luck to Burt and his team.
I can't imagine staying in the cockpit for that many hours, at those extreme altitudes (even on oxygen), being that sleep deprived, and then trying to handle an aircraft which has lost almost 90% of its' takeoff weight. The controls must be touchy as Hell when near empty, and there will be an elated, yet punch drunk pilot at the stick.
Try to put yourself in his place, and then go without sleep for that long, and at the end of 3 straight days go flying. Every other line in my checklists by day three would say: "WAKE UP!!!!!" And if it were me, I'd do just fine until that final approach. Then the feeling of accomplishment would set it, I'd relax, and go to sleep right before coming in over the fence.....and wake up immediately after the nose gear impacted the runway.
That photo makes it look like a good start on an updated P-38 for the experimental market. But in reality it's a giant fuel tank.
This project almost seems routine after winning the X-prize. When you consider though that Rutan must have been developing this aircraft at the same time he was perfecting the X-prize rocket it gives you some idea of his creativity and energy.
LOL! You wouldn't be awake long though!
I guess having cruise control, errr...autopilot would add too much weight. Otherwise he could set it on auto for three hour naps.
My guess, he has sleep planned or he will be popping pills for the eighty hours. How old is he? Guess a search would reveal the tid-bit.
Age: Nearly 61
(((PING))))
The guy's already a sky legend!
Good Luck, Steve.
Wish he would depart on a weekend so I could watch the takeoff live. Guess I'll have to settle for a FreeRepublic "live" thread.
<< Try to put yourself in his place, and then go without sleep for that long, and at the end of 3 straight days go flying. >>
Try and imagine doing it in the busiest-imaginable environment [Within a couple of hundred power-wire and radio-mast and other-obstacle-filled feet of the ground] day-and-night-spraying cotton crops. Try and imagine going to work on Sunday afternoon and coming home at noon on Thursday not having been out of the cockpit for more than twenty minutes from go to whoa -- and in the meanwhile having been airbourne around eighty hours and having sprayed around 25,000 acres of cotton.
You imagine it, that is: I don't have to -- I was in the aeroplane at the time.
Between seasons? How's about relieving the otherwise boredom by single-pilot ferrying light aircraft across the world's oceans -- involving legs of up to 22 hours and perhaps 90 hours of flying per week?
Beats the Heck oudda working for a living, though.
ROFL
I know what you mean. Fly fixed wing traffic watch through five control zones twice daily, dodge all airline, cargo and especially GA traffic at surrounding non towered ops fields and try not to hit any hills or buildings if the wx stinks, all the while delivering reports to my radio station every ten minutes and making it sound like it's all routine while keeping my ticket intact and my hind end alive. Yeah, I'd hate to have to work for a living.
<< Yeah, I'd hate to have to work for a living. >>
Having to spend even part of the day/week/month/year mixing with Earth people convinces me of that!
Be safe - Be well - Be happy - B A
I got tired of Atlantic and Pacific crossings in the C-141 after we air refueled (the flight could be 17 hours), and I got to walk around, take a pee in a bathroom, and get out of the seat and let the other pilot have it for awhile. Eighty hours? Sheesh!
Maybe he could stay awake by listening to screeching Hillary Clinton speeches.
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