The Ultimate Flight, By The Numbers | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.22.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.16.24

Airborne-FlightTraining-04.17.24 Airborne-AffordableFlyers-04.18.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.19.24

Join Us At 0900ET, Friday, 4/10, for the LIVE Morning Brief.
Watch It LIVE at
www.airborne-live.net

Sun, Feb 12, 2006

The Ultimate Flight, By The Numbers

Here is the breakdown on Steve Fossett's record-setting Ultimate Flight, which came to a stressful-yet-successful end Saturday when the Virgin Atlantic Globalflyer landed in Bournemouth, England.

TOTAL MILES FLOWN: 26,389.3, breaking the record of 24,987 miles set in 1986 by Rutan's Voyager aircraft. The distance is also just over 1,000 miles more than the 25,361 miles balloonists Brian Jones and Bertrand Piccard flew on their round-the-world flight in 1999.

Although he fell short of his 27,000 mile goal, Fossett can still boast of having the "Ultimate Flight."

TOTAL TIME IN THE AIR: 76 hours, 45 minutes

TOTAL FUEL CAPACITY OF THE GLOBALFLYER: Over 18,000 lbs.

FUEL LEFT ONBOARD AT TIME OF LANDING: Approximately 200 lbs. Eep.

NAIL BITING MOMENTS: At least three, one for each primary phase of the flight.

The stress caused by two bird strikes and fuel loss on takeoff was compounded by excessive overheating in the cabin as Fossett climbed to altitude after liftoff Wednesday (below), which forced Fossett to drink much of his approximately three-gallon supply of water much earlier than planned. After peaking at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, things only cooled down to below 100 degrees in the cabin after enough fuel had burned off to allow Fossett to throttle back the engine.

Later, severe turbulence caused some very stressful moments over India, as Fossett watched the GlobalFlyer's thin wings flex excessively in the strong air currents. Smartly, Fossett donned his oxygen mask and parachute in case of a structural failure... something he didn't mention to controllers until hours later, by which time things had settled down.

Lastly, of course, there was the matter that forced Fossett to land in Bournemouth Saturday morning, instead of travelling further on to Kent International. While on approach to Kent, the GlobalFlyer's generator failed --  which meant a total electrical breakdown. Fossett was then forced to make an emergency Mayday call to London ATC, where controllers gave Fossett what the team describes as "a short window" to land.

"If we didn’t get him down in fifteen minutes, he would have had to have ditched the plane," said Virgin Atlantic CEO Steve Ridgeway.

Heavy icing on the aircraft's windscreen also meant Steve could hardly see outside at all during landing.

NUMBER OF TIRES PUT ON FOSSETT'S BILL: Two. Both mainwheel tires burst on the GlobalFlyer during landing. Project founder Sir Richard Branson will likely have them added to his tab, though.

WHADDYA MEAN, YOU WANT ME TO GET ON ANOTHER %^$& PLANE? Okay, so this isn't a number... but it speaks to Fossett's (and Richard Branson's) sense of showmanship that... after Fossett received a brief medical checkup at Bournemouth... both men boarded Branson's private jet for the hop over to Kent, to greet the scores of eager attendees who had waited to greet the GlobalFlyer.

WANNA BUY A WATCH? As he did after Fossett's record-breaking flight-around-the-world last year, Branson will reportedly offer the Breitling wristwatch he 'lended' Fossett for the Ultimate Flight for sale on eBay, with the proceeds going to charity. The RTW watch brought over $650,000, and the Ultimate... watch... will likely at least match that. For the money (list price $10,000) the watch includes an emergency locator beacon.

FMI: www.globalflyer.com

Advertisement

More News

Airbus Racer Helicopter Demonstrator First Flight Part of Clean Sky 2 Initiative

Airbus Racer Demonstrator Makes Inaugural Flight Airbus Helicopters' ambitious Racer demonstrator has achieved its inaugural flight as part of the Clean Sky 2 initiative, a corners>[...]

Diamond's Electric DA40 Finds Fans at Dübendorf

A little Bit Quieter, Said Testers, But in the End it's Still a DA40 Diamond Aircraft recently completed a little pilot project with Lufthansa Aviation Training, putting a pair of >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.23.24): Line Up And Wait (LUAW)

Line Up And Wait (LUAW) Used by ATC to inform a pilot to taxi onto the departure runway to line up and wait. It is not authorization for takeoff. It is used when takeoff clearance >[...]

NTSB Final Report: Extra Flugzeugbau GMBH EA300/L

Contributing To The Accident Was The Pilot’s Use Of Methamphetamine... Analysis: The pilot departed on a local flight to perform low-altitude maneuvers in a nearby desert val>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: 'Never Give Up' - Advice From Two of FedEx's Female Captains

From 2015 (YouTube Version): Overcoming Obstacles To Achieve Their Dreams… At EAA AirVenture 2015, FedEx arrived with one of their Airbus freight-hauling aircraft and placed>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC