A Brief History
On March 3, 2005, Steve Fossett of the USA made a non-stop, unrefueled solo flight around the globe, the first person in aviation history to achieve that particular milestone. Already 60 years old at the time of his historic flight, Fossett died tragically only 2 ½ years later, predictably in a plane crash.
Digging Deeper
Born in Tennessee, Fossett grew up in California, attending Garden Grove High School and was educated at Stanford University for undergraduate work and at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri for grad school where he earned an MBA. Like his father, Fossett was an Eagle Scout and was a daring go-getter, eager to try new things and take chances. While at Stanford he once swam out to Alcatraz Island as a prank and was picked up by security guards when he got there. He became a mountain climber and even swam the Dardanelles strait in Turkey.
Fossett used his high intelligence and tremendous energy to make a fortune in business, which took him away from his beloved adventures, until he started making time for himself to pursue more novel activities, gradually winding down the amount of time he spent on business. Fossett moved to Colorado in 1990, married, and became friends with billionaire Richard Branson, a fortunate friendship as Branson helped finance some of Fossett’s adventures.
Fossett’s interest in aviation brought him into the world of innovation and testing the limits of ballooning, sailplanes (gliders) and powered aircraft, as well as sail boating. His sailing exploits led to over 2 dozen world records in sailing! He set a speed record for airships in 2004 in a Zeppelin, reaching 62.2 knots, smashing the old record of 50.1 knots. In 2002 Fossett made history by becoming the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world, unrefueled and non-stop, the first such flight in any sort of aircraft. He also set many records flying gliders, in fact, 10 of the 21 recognized glider records. He also set records flying in a Cessna jet plane, a total of 3 records for non-supersonic jet flight. No other pilot had ever held world records in more than one class of aircraft, and yet Fossett held world records in 4 aircraft types! Obviously, Fossett earned numerous awards and titles during his fantastic career.
For his record setting 2005 circumnavigation of the Earth, Fossett flew a Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, a single jet powered specialty airplane with a wingspan of 114 feet and an odd twin boom and pilot nacelle in the middle configuration, with the jet engine above the pilot’s nacelle. The flight of over 25,000 miles took 2 days and 19 hours at an average speed of 367 mph. The plane was financed by Richard Branson and built by another great aviation pioneer, Burt Rutan. In 2006, Fossett repeated his feat, but this time flew a little slower and somewhat farther, setting a new unrefueled solo record for distance (25,766 miles). The GlobalFlyer is built of carbon reinforced epoxy and weighed only 3700 pounds unloaded (gross weight with fuel etc. 22,100 pounds). The Williams FJ44 turbofan jet engine provided 2300 pounds of thrust.
Sadly, on September 3, 2007, Fossett took off in a single engine propeller plane, a Champion Super Decathlon, and was not seen again until the wreckage was found a year later in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Incredibly, the Nevada Governor, Jim Gibbons, took the unprecedented step of trying to bill the Fossett family for the cost of the search, originally reported at almost $700,000. Eventually, the actual costs were tallied at $1.6 million and Gibbons asked for Nevada to be repaid $487,000. Fossett’s widow refused the payment, having spent over a million dollars of her own money for privately funded searches. Crash investigation was unable to determine any equipment malfunction(s) and theorized that downdrafts at the time exceeded the little plane’s ability to climb fast enough to avoid hitting the mountains. Fossett was dead at the age of 63 on a routine flight.
James Stephen “Steve” Fossett ranks with the greatest of aviation legends, and perhaps higher than any of the past couple of decades. His eclectic and adventurous lifestyle reads more like an adventure novel character than a real guy, truly one of the great adventurers of his time. His accomplishments are so varied and so profound it is hard to think of anyone that comes close as a modern Most Interesting Man in the World.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Can you think of anyone with a more accomplished or more interesting life?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Fossett, Steve; Hasley, Will. Chasing the Wind: The Autobiography of Steve Fossett. Virgin Books, 2006.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of the GlobalFlyer at the Kennedy Space Center, is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted“. (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
