Around the world in 80hrs

[Oceanic]

Record Bid

VIRGIN boss Sir Richard Branson is unveiling the aircraft which will be used in a record-breaking attempt to fly solo non-stop around the world.

GlobalFlyer will travel 23,000 miles at about 50,000ft and hopes to complete the challenge in less than 80 hours.

Adventurer Steve Fossett will pilot the plane, with Sir Richard as reserve pilot in case anything goes wrong.

The lightweight aircraft will carry more than four times its weight in fuel and needs a 12,000ft runway to take off.

Engineers have been working on the plane in the Mojave Desert, California, for the past seven months.

The challenge - which is due to take pace in April - is the first time a pilot has tried to fly alone and non-stop around the globe.

[brakedwell]

If Mr Fossett goes down with the flu me thinks the grinning pullover might have bitten off more than he can chew!

[Daysleeper]

So how is it legal or sensible to have 1 person doing 80 hours non stop. Indeed as is being shown on Uk TV at the moment it is very hard to remain awake and alert for even close to that long.
What does this say about Virgin Atlantic. "Dont worry passengers today we will be sharing the sky with one of our aeroplanes where the pilot has not been to sleep for 3 days."
IMHO this must be treated as a UAV rather than an experimental aircraft and denied access to controlled airspace. Particularly as their route is taking them straight through some of the busiest airspace in the world.
I would not want it just 3000 feet over my head when Steve F drifts off to sleep and the autopilot drops out.

[Maxflyer]

brakedwell and daysleeper. Let's all join the Branson bashers eh?

Where's your spirit of adventure?

I say good luck to the team and I hope the flight succeeds.

[timbo04]

To what extent is RB qualified? - the website is strangely silent on this point.

[Daysleeper]

Im not bashing Branson at all. However if Im going to be sharing the same sky as the guy I want to know that he is awake. Or if not that the aircraft is quite capable of operating by itself. Which has yet to be proved with UAV's Where the acident rate is thousands of times greater than in commercial aircraft.
It would be rather ironic if he dozed off mid atlantic and wiped out one of his own jumbos going the other way.

[Rollingthunder]

Take off currently scheduled for 23:30 GMT.

[S-Works]

Daysleeper, I bet you do a risk assessment before you get out of bed?

Where is your spirit of adventure?

My advice is if you are that worried stay in bed for the next 80 hrs!!!

I personally wish them all the best.

[Circuit Basher]

Surprised this thread isn't being updated more regularly - as of 0914 UTC, Global Flyer has coasted out from Nova Scotia and is over the Atlantic.

Mission Control Status is here.

[Aeronut]

When overhead UK?

Anyone have an estimate for when the Global Flyer might be overhead the UK? Would be nice to see the contrail at least - not sure how visible he'll be at 40,000 ft, even on a clear day!

Some time tommorrow I guess??!?



God Speed Global Flyer

[Circuit Basher]

He's currently around 12 hrs into the flight and is South of the Azores at around 345 kts, something like 700 miles from the West coast of Africa. He's currently on a heading of 135 deg, which seems to indicate that he'll route over Morocco / Algeria / Tunisia, missing most of Europe. These Americans will do anything to avoid coming to UK!

Estimated time of flight is 80 hrs, which I reckon would be a pretty remarkable thing to have in your logbook.

Just realised that under FAA and CAA rules, this wouldn't count as a cross-country as he plans to land at the same airfield as his departure!!

[18greens]

Does anyone know how this differs from the Dick Rutan non stop around the world trip?

[Circuit Basher]

I believe the fact that it's a solo non-stop, non-refuelled circumnavigation. For interest, the summary of the 1986 Voyager flight is as follows, taken from the Dick Rutan Web Site:

• On a wing and a dream, a small group of people set out to achieve the impossible - to fly around the world without stopping and without refueling. It was originally believed the project would take about 18 months. Design, construction, flight route and permissions, and testing stretched that 18 month projection to nearly six years. In early December of 1986, Voyager was flown to Edwards Air Force Base in California. She was fueled for hours and on December 14, 1986, Voyager took off on what would become The World's Longest Flight.
• Voyager's flight was the first-ever, non-stop, unrefueled flight around the world. It took place between December 14 and December 23, 1986.
• This milestone flight took 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds.
• The absolute world distance records set during that flight remained unchallenged today.
• The flight was 26,366 statute miles, which more than doubled the previous record set by a B52 Bomber in 1962. (The FAI accredited distance at 40,212 km).
• The structural weight of the Voyager Aircraft was only 939 pounds.
• When the airplane took off full of fuel, pilots and supplies, the gross take off weight was 9,694.5 pounds.
• The average altitude flown was about 11,000 feet.
• The Voyager took off from and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• There were two crew members on board, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager.
• Dick's brother, Burt Rutan, who is a world-renowned airplane designer, designed the airplane.
• The Voyager was built in Mojave, California. It took five years to build and test the airplane before taking off on its remarkable record-setting flight.
• There were 99 ground volunteers that participated in the flight with weather, communications, fabrication, office staff, gift shop staff and more.
• Primarily individual contributions, and a few product equipment sponsors financed the Voyager. The project did not receive any government sponsorship.
• Four days after landing, President Ronald Reagan presented the Voyager crew and it's designer with the Presidential Citizenship Medal, awarded only 16 times previously in history.
• The Voyager Aircraft is on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.
• To find out more about the Voyager project and flight, we suggest you order the Voyager Technical Flight Log (see order page) or the Voyager book.

[Grainger]

18g:

Does anyone know how this differs from the Dick Rutan non stop around the world trip?

Yes, it's the first solo non-stop circumnavigation in a jet engined aircraft without refuelling. The Rutan voyager was a propeller aircraft and none the less of an achivement for that, of course.

Latest from the Global Flyer site:

Mission Status: 19:52UTC at Mission Control. Elapsed Journey time: 19 hours 06 minutes. Distance covered approximately 6,050 nautical miles.

Steve is now flying at 47,000ft which means he will burn less fuel. He expects to fly at this level for the rest of the night. He is now flying over Libyan airspace and has picked up a 100 mph jetstream.

Steve is currently traveling at 340 knots/ 390 mph (ground speed).

Good luck Steve !

[PPRuNe Pop]

Project Manager has just stated (Sky News) that Global Flyer is over half way but in trouble. Seems there has been a problem of venting.

There is insufficient fuel without the addition of tailwinds to complete the flight. They are currently assessing the future and the possibility of terminating the flight over Japan.

Safety first will prevail and so continuance over the Pacific is very doubtful they say.

[valenii]

Global Flyer equipment?

Does anyone know what his nav equipment is like?

Does he have an ADF? ;-)

His reg is N277SF, single engine composite aircraft....

[BeauMan]

Looks like he's doing okay. Latest map shows him passing to the south of Japan, 338Kts groundspeed, heading 89.1 degrees.

I wish him all the best.

http://virginatlanticglobalflyer.com...trol/Tracking/

BM

[Confabulous]

Speed Altitude
332 Kts 45,882ft

Looking a bit touchy, speed's coming down.

Northwest of Honolulu now.

May the gods of aviation smile upon you.

Come on Steve!

[Jhieminga]

Does anyone know how this differs from the Dick Rutan non stop around the world trip?

As Grainger pointed out this flight is solo, and its a jet-engined aircraft. A few other differences:
- Voyager flew at 11.000ft, having to circumnavigate all the weatherfronts, Globalflyer flies four times as high, putting him above the weather systems
- The most sophisticated piece of navigation equipment on Voyager was an Omega system. Globalflyer relies on a GPS system, coupled to an autopilot.
- The Voyager flight lasted for over nine days. Globalflyer's flight will be less than three days.

Not wanting to belittle Steve Fosset's achievements, I still think that Voyager was a more challenging project, both from the crew's view as from the organisation standpoint. But that's just my view.

Btw, can someone explain why Globalflyer's website is saying that they beat the 1962 B-52 record while Voyager already beat this record in 1986? Are they conveniently leaving out this fact because they are talking about Jet-engined class records only??

Edit: Looks like I found the answer to my question already:

Jet-engine class distance records

Piston engined class records

[LondonJ]

Did he make it?

He was scheduled to touch down 15mins ago but the website is down.