Safely on the ground, after last-minute scare

Steve Fossett declared a Mayday emergency and diverted from his intended airport landing, ending up at Bournemouth airport instead of Kent after making a sudden right turn. It turns out he lost all power, apparently because a generator overheated and failed. He was given immediate clearance for an emergency landing at Bournemouth, while crowds of spectators waited for his arrival miles away at Kent International Airport.


The Landing itself was pretty dicey. The windshield was so iced-up that he could only see a few feet ahead, and he blew two tires on the landing. But all's well, both pilot and airplane survived the journey unscathed and racked up a whole series of new world's records, including the longest flight by any kind of aircraft. The unofficial distance travelled was 26,389.3 miles, after a voyage that lasted 76 hours and 45 minutes.
Steve will probably sleep pretty soundly tonight.



Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson plants a big kiss on Steve Fossett moments after the landing of the world's longest nonstop flight.
(Photo taken from Florida Today's blog, the Flame Trench, which is HERE).

The record is set: longest flight ever!

It's official! Crossing over Ireland, Fossett broke the absolute distance record for flight by any kind of aurcraft. He's approaching his landing at Kent airport at this moment. Congratulations to Steve Fossett and the team!

Past the Cape, on to distance records!

He's over Florida now, past the cape, and around the world plus!
Interesting stuff happened along the way yesterday, it turns out: Fossett was ready to bail out, but pressed on.
While he was going through a patch of extreme turbulence over Bhopal, India, he said he "was afraid it was going to break up. It was a scary time and I had my parachute on and I was prepared to bail out in case a wing broke."
But Fossett didn't reveal the scary episode to mission controllers in England until several hours later, after the danger had passed and he had started across the Pacific Ocean. At the time of the incident, he was in radio contact, but only told mission managers that there had been turbulence and he was "uncomfortable."
During part of that turbulent episode, he was actually on the radio with Virgin chairman Richard Branson, who said afterward that it sounded like the plane was taking a real battering.
The jet-powered plane, build entirely of carbon-fiber composite by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, US, is built for minimum weight to maximize its efficiency and range, but that makes it about four times more vulnerable to turbulence than a commercial jet, according to company statements. So there is real risk of structural damage in such situations.

The jet-powered plane, build entirely of carbon-fibre composite by Scaled Composites of Mojave, California, US, is built for minimum weight to maximize its efficiency and range, but that makes it about four times more vulnerable to turbulence than a commercial jet, according to company statements. So there is real risk of structural damage in such situations.

Almost around the world

Steve Fossett is now over the Gulf of Mexico, having passed Houston and getting close to overflying his takeoff point at NASA's Kennedy Space center in Florida. So he's now just an hour or so from tying his own record last year for a solo circumnavigation.
Soon, he was supposed to be be veering northward, essentially following the US east coast, then flying over Newfoundland, Greenland and on to Ireland and England. That would provide opportunities for emergency landing most of the way. But now, running short on fuel, he's planning a more southerly route, riskier but requiring less fuel overall. He'll have to make a potentially life-or-death decision Friday night as to whether to attempt the Atlantic crossing, with no more landing opportunities until the British isles.
After KSC, every mile brings him closer to new world records -- every mile past KSC is automatically the new distance record for a solo flight. But the risks keep increasing.

Halfway to a world record

Steve Fossett is now somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, after taking off from Kennedy Space Center Wednesday morning in an attempt to set the absolute distance record for any aircraft. But he lost 750 pounds of fuel on takeoff and winds have been weak, so it's a bit iffy as to whether he'll make it.
The official website of the mission giving a map of his present position is here.
And the local Florida paper has a very up-to-date blog by Todd Halvorson, keeping up with the mission here.
The website has received 24 million hits since the flight started, they say. Last year, when Fossett completed the world's first solo circumnavigation of the Earth, in the same plane, the website got 140 million hits the day he landed. They're expecting more this time, on landing day on Saturday. It'll be interesting to see -- they say there has been more press in England this time, and the landing is supposed to be there -- if all goes well.

SpacePlace update

Continuing the shameless self-promotion, I've continued to expand and improve on SpacePlaces.net, and I think it's getting to the point where it starts to be a useful service. Once again, feedback, comments and suggestions are welcome.