Steve Fossett Fixed-wing

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Fixed-wing aircraft pilot

Fossett made the first solo nonstop fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world between February 28, 2005, and March 3, 2005.
He took off from Salina, Kansas, where he was assisted by faculty members and students from Kansas State University, and flew eastbound, with the prevailing winds, returning to Salina after 67 hours, 1 minute, 10 seconds, without refueling or making intermediate landings.
His average speed of 342.2 mph (550.7 km/h) was also the absolute world record for "speed around the world, nonstop and non-refueled.

His aircraft, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, had a carbon fiber reinforced plastic airframe, with a single Williams FJ44 turbofan engine.
It was designed and built by Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, for long-distance solo flight.
The fuel fraction, the weight of the fuel divided by the weight of the aircraft at take-off, was 83 percent.

On February 11, 2006, Fossett set the absolute world record for "distance without landing" by flying from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, around the world eastbound, then upon returning to Florida continuing across the Atlantic a second time to land in Bournemouth, England.
The official distance was 25,766 statute miles (41,467 km) and the duration was 76 hours 45 minutes.

The next month, Fossett made a third flight around the world in order to break the absolute record for "Distance over a closed circuit without landing" (with takeoff and landing at the same airport).
He took off from Salina, Kansas on March 14, 2006 and returned on March 17, 2006 after flying 25,262 statute miles (40,655 km).

There are only seven absolute world records for fixed-wing aircraft recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and Fossett broke three of them in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.
All three records were previously held by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager from their flight in the Voyager in 1986.
Fossett contributed the GlobalFlyer to the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.
It is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum.
Fossett flew the plane to the Center and taxied the plane to the front door.

Transcontinental aircraft records

Fossett set two U.S. transcontinental fixed-wing aircraft records in the same day.
On February 5, 2003, he flew his Cessna Citation X jet from San Diego, California to Charleston, South Carolina in 2 hours, 56 minutes, 20 seconds, at an average speed of 726.83 mph (1169.73 km/h) to smash the transcontinental record for non-supersonic jets.

He returned to San Diego, then flew the same course as co-pilot for fellow adventurer Joe Ritchie in Ritchie's turboprop Piaggio Avanti.
Their time was 3 hours, 51 minutes, 52 seconds, an average speed of 546.44 mph (879.46 km/h), which broke the previous turboprop transcontinental record held by Chuck Yeager and Renald Davenport.

Fossett also set the east-to-west transcontinental record for non-supersonic fixed-wing aircraft on September 17, 2000.
He flew from Jacksonville, Florida to San Diego, California in 3 hours, 29 minutes, at an average speed of 591.96 mph (952.67 km/h).

First trans-Atlantic flight re-enactment

On July 2, 2005, Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz re-created the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic which was made by the British team of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in June 1919 in a Vickers Vimy biplane.
Their flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada to Clifden, Ireland in the open cockpit Vickers Vimy replica took 18 hours 25 minutes with 13 hours flown in instrument flight conditions.
Because there was no airport in Clifden, Fossett and Rebholz landed on the 8th fairway of the Connemarra Golf Course.


Glider records

The team of Steve Fossett and Terry Delore (NZL) set ten official world records in gliders while flying in three major locations: New Zealand, Argentina and Nevada, United States.

An asterisk (*) indicates records subsequently broken by other pilots.

Distance (Free) World Record 2,192.9 km, December 4, 2004.
Triangle Distance (Free) World Record* 1,509.7 km, December 13, 2003.
Out and Return Distance (Free) World Record* 2,002.44 km, November 14, 2003.
1,500 Kilometer Triangle World Record 119.11 km/h (74.02 mph), December 13, 2003.
1,250 Kilometer Triangle U.S. National Record 143.48 km/h (89.51 mph). Exceeded world record by 0.01 km/h, July 30, 2003.
750 Kilometer Triangle World Record* 171.29 km/h (106.44 mph), July 29, 2003.[33]
500 Kilometer Triangle World Record* 187.12 km/h (116.27 mph), November 15, 2003.
1,000 km Out-and-Return World Record* 166.46 km/h (103.44 mph), December 12, 2002.
1,500 km Out-and-Return World Record* 156.61 km/h (97.30 mph), November 14, 2003.
Triangle Distance (Declared) World Record* 1,502.6 km, December 13, 2003.
Out-and-Return Distance (Declared) World Record* 1,804.7 km, November 14, 2003.


Fossett and co-pilot Einar Enevoldson flew a glider into the stratosphere on August 29, 2006.
The flight set the Absolute Altitude Record for gliders at 50,727 feet (15,460 m).

Since the glider cockpit was unpressurized, the pilots wore full pressure suits (similar to space suits) so that they would be able to fly to altitudes above 45,000 feet (14,000 m).

Fossett and Enevoldson had made previous attempts in three countries over a period of five years before finally succeeding with this record flight.
This endeavor is known as the Perlan Project.

Source: Wikipedia

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