CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
(AP) – Adventurer Steve Fossett shot down a three-mile (4.8-kilometer)
runway in an experimental aircraft Wednesday and took off on an attempt to
break a 20-year-old flight distance record.
Fossett's
lightweight, glider-like airplane lifted off from a runway at Kennedy Space
Center normally used for space shuttle landings. It hit two birds during
takeoff but wasn't damaged, said Jim Ball, a NASA manager at the Kennedy Space
Center. Once it was airborne, the plane's long, flexible wings lifted slightly
upward.
“The roll was longer
than we anticipated but that's why he wanted to use a 15,000-foot (4,500-meter)
runway,'' Ball said.
Fossett's goal is a nearly
27,000-mile (43,443-kilometer) trip, once around the world and then across the
Atlantic again, with a landing outside London.
If successful, the 3
1/2-day trip would break the previous airplane record of 24,987 miles (40,204
kilometers) set in 1986 by the Voyager aircraft piloted by Dick Rutan and
Jeanna Yeager, as well as the balloon record of 25,361 miles (40,805.8
kilometers) set by the Breitling Orbiter 3 in 1999.
“Mountain climbing
was my original sport ... and I've never tired from the satisfaction of getting
to the top of a mountain,'' Fossett said in a recent interview.
A fuel leak Tuesday in
Fossett's experimental aircraft delayed his takeoff, but after a quick fix, the
plane was ready to go again.
Shortly before 7:30 a.m.
(1230 GMT) Wednesday, it became the first experimental airplane built by the
private sector to take off from Cape Canaveral.
During his 80 hours in the
air, Fossett will take power naps no longer than five minutes each and drink a
steady diet of nutritious milkshakes. His plane is equipped with a parachute
pack holding a one-man raft and a satellite rescue beacon, just in case.
Fossett already holds the
record for flying solo around the globe in a balloon and for being the first
person to circle the globe solo in a plane without stopping or refueling. That
flight last year lasted 67 hours and also was hampered by a fuel leak.
He is using the same plane,
the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, which has a 114-foot (34.2-meter) wing span,
in his latest quest. Both ventures were financed by Virgin Atlantic Airways
founder Richard Branson.
advertisement
