Francais | English | Espanõl

Steve Fossett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Image:Steve Fossett 10.22.04 287.jpg

Steve Fossett (born April 22, 1944, in Jackson, Tennessee) is a United States aviator and adventurer known for his appetite to set world records. Fossett, who made his fortune in American financial markets, is best known for his five world record non-stop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo airplane pilot. Fossett has set 116 records in five different sports, 76 of which still stand as of September 2006.<ref name="eagletter"> (Fall 2006) "Fossett Sets Another World Record". Eagletter Vol:32 (No:2): pp: 11.</ref>

Fossett grew up in Garden Grove, California. In 1966 he graduated from Stanford University with a BA. In 1968 he graduated with a MBA from The Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and today is on the Board of Trustees. Fossett is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Steve Fossett is well-known for his world record-setting adventures in balloons, sailboats, gliders and powered aircraft. He is an aviator of exceptional breadth of experience, from his tenacious quest to become the first person to achieve a solo balloon flight around the world (finally succeeding on his sixth attempt, in 2002) to setting, with co-pilot Terry Delore, 10 of the 21 Glider Open records, including the first 2,000 km Out-and-Return, the first 1,500 km Triangle and the longest Straight Distance flights. His achievements as a jet pilot in a Cessna Citation X include records for U.S. Transcontinental, Australia Transcontinental, and Round-the-World Westbound non-supersonic flights.

In 2005, Fossett made the first solo nonstop circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, a single engine jet airplane.

In 2006, he again circumnavigated the world unrefueled non-stop in 76 hours, 45 minutes in the Global Flyer setting the absolute record for the longest flight by any aircraft in history – 26,389 statute miles.

In 2002 Fossett received aviation's highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).

[edit] Balloon pilot

On February 21, 1995, Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in a balloon. He launched from Northam, Western Australia, on June 19, 2002, and returned to Australia on July 3, 2002, subsequently landing in Queensland, Australia. Duration and distance of this solo balloon flight was 13 days 8 hours 33 minutes (14 days 19 hours 50 minutes to landing), 20,626.48 statute miles (33,195.10 km)

[edit] Sailor

Steve Fossett has been one of the world's most accomplished sailors. Speed sailing was Fossett's speciality and from 1993 to 2004, he dominated the record sheets, setting 23 official world records and 9 distance race records.

On the maxi-catamaran Cheyenne (formerly PlayStation) Steve has twice set the prestigious 24 Hour Record of Sailing. In October 2001, Steve and his crew set a TransAtlantic record of 4 days 17 hours, shattering the previous record by 43 hours 35 minutes — an increase in average speed of nearly seven knots.

In early 2004 Fossett, as skipper, set the world record for fastest circumnavigation of the world (58 days, 9 hours) in Cheyenne with a crew of 13. Both the Transatlantic and Round the World records have been superceded by Bruno Peyron on Orange II.

[edit] Airship pilot

Fossett set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships on October 27, 2004. This new record for fastest flight with an Airship was accomplished by flying a huge Zeppelin NT with a recorded average speed of 62.2 knots (115.0 km/h, 71.5 mph.) The previous record was 50.1 knots (92.8 km/h, 57.7 mph) set in 2001 in a Virgin Airship.

[edit] Airplane pilot

[edit] Global Flyer

Fossett made the first solo non-stop airplane flight around the world between 28 February and 3 March, 2005. He took off from Salina, Kansas and flew eastbound with the prevailing winds and returned to Salina, Kansas after 67 hours 1 minute 10 seconds. His average speed of 342.2 mph (550.7 km/h) was also the absolute world record for speed nonstop around the world. The aircraft was named the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer which was a single jet engine of carbon composite construction with a single Williams jet engine. It was designed and built by Scaled Composites for distance solo flight. The fuel fraction was 83 percent of the total takeoff weight.

On February 11, 2006 Fossett set the absolute world record for distance without landing by flying from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, around the world eastbound, then upon returning overhead Florida continued across the Atlantic a second time to land in Bournemouth, England. The official distance was 25,766 statute miles (41,467 km) and the duration was 76 hours 43 minutes.

The next month, Fossett made a third flight around the world in order to break the absolute record for closed-circuit distance (takeoff and landing at the same airport). He took off from Salina, Kansas on 14 March, 2006 and returned on 17 March, 2006 after flying 25,262 statute miles (40,655 km).

There are only seven absolute world records for fixed-wing aircraft and Fossett broke three of them in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. All three records were previously held by Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager from their flight in the Voyager in 1986. Fossett has contributed the Global Flyer to the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. It is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithonsian’s National Air & Space Museum.

[edit] Trancontinental aircraft records

Fossett set two U.S. transcontinental airplane records in the same day. On February 5, 2003, he flew his Cessna Citation X jet from San Diego, CA to Charleston, SC in 2 hours, 56 minutes, 20 seconds, at an average speed of 726.83 mph (1169.73 km/h) to smash the transcontinental record for non-supersonic jets.

He returned to San Diego, then flew the same course as co-pilot for fellow adventurer Joe Ritchie in Joe's turboprop Piaggio Avanti. Their time was 3 hours, 51 minutes, 52 seconds, an average speed of 546.44 mph (879.46 km/h), which broke the previous turboprop transcontinental record held by Chuck Yeager and Renald Davenport .

Fossett also set the east-to-west transcontinental record for non-supersonic fixed-wing aircraft on 17 September, 2000. He flew from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA in 3 hours 29 minutes, at an average speed of 591.96 mph (952.67 km/h).

[edit] First Transatlantic Flight Re-Creation

On 2 July, 2005, Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz re-created the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic which was made by the British team of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in June 1919 in a Vickers Vimy biplane. Their flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada to Clifden, Ireland in the open cockpit Vickers Vimy replica took 18 hours 25 minutes with 13 hours flown in instrument flight conditions. Since there was no airport in Clifden, Fossett and Rebholz landed on the 8th fairway of the Connemarra Golf Course.

[edit] Glider Speed and Distance Records

The team of Steve Fossett and Terry Delore (NZL) have set 10 official World Records in gliders while flying in three major locations: New Zealand, Argentina and Nevada, USA. Asterisk (*) indicates records subsequently broken by other pilots.

Distance (Free) World Record 2192.9 km -- 4 December 2004

Triangle Distance (Free) World Record 1509.7 km -- 13 December 2003

Out and Return Distance (Free) World Record* 2002.44 km -- 14 November 2003

1500 Kilometer Triangle World Record 119.11 km/h (74.02 mph) -- 13 December 2003

1250 Kilometer Triangle U.S. National Record 143.48 km/h (89.51 mph). Exceeded world record by .01 km/h -- 30 July 2003

750 Kilometer Triangle World Record 171.29 km/h (106,44 mph) -- 29 July 2003

500 Kilometer Triangle World Record* 187.12 km/h (116.27 mph) -- 15 November 2003

1000 Km Out-and-Return World Record* 166.46 km/h (103.44 mph) -- 12 December 2002

1500 Out-and-Return World Record* 156.61 km/h (97.30 mph) -- 14 November 2003

Triangle Distance (Declared) World Record 1502.6 km -- 13 December 2003

Out-and-Return Distance (Declared) World Record* 1804.7 km -- 14 November 2003

[edit] Glider Altitude Record

Fossett and co-pilot Einar Enevoldson flew a glider into the Stratosphere on August 29, 2006. The flight set the Absolute Altitude Record for gliders at 50,671 feet (15,447 m). Since the glider cockpit was unpressurized, the pilots wore full pressure suits (similar to space suits) so that they would be able to fly to altitudes above 45,000 feet. Fossett and Enevoldson had made attempts in three countries over a period of five years before finally succeeding with this record flight. This endeavor was known as the Perlan Project.

[edit] Scouting

As a youth, Fossett earned the rank Eagle Scout of the Boy Scouts of America at age 13. As an adult he he was named a Distinguished Eagle Scout and awarded the Silver Buffalo by the Boy Scouts of America. Fossett is a member of the National Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America, and a former member of the World Scout Committee.

[edit] Other accomplishments

Fossett has competed in and completed premier endurance sports events including the 1,165 mile Iditarod dog sled race, Ironman Triathlon, the English Channel swim, and driven the 24 hours of Le Mans as well as setting cross-country skiing records. Steve is also a lifelong mountain climber and has climbed the highest peak on 6 of the 7 continents.

He has set 93 Aviation World Records ratified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale<ref>List of records established by 'Steve FOSSETT (USA)':. History of Aviation and Space World Records. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.</ref> plus 23 sailing world records ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

[edit] See also

Scouting Portal
</div>


[edit] References

<references />

[edit] External links

de:Steve Fossett es:Steve Fossett fr:Steve Fossett nl:Steve Fossett no:Steve Fossett pl:Steve Fossett fi:Steve Fossett

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Steve_Fossett"
Personal tools