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Is this really a big deal...Or am I a wet blanket?
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has landed at a Kansas airstrip, successfully completing his non-stop, around-the-world solo flight. Fossett landed his single-engine Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer jet in Salina, Kansas at before 3 p.m. ET, after approximately 67 hours in the air. About 15 minutes later, Fossett emerged from the plane's cramped cockpit, to the cheers of a crowd assembled on the tarmac. "Well, that was something I've wanted to do for a long time -- a major ambition -- and I've had the good fortune to get the right people associated with it," he said after embracing project sponsor, Virgin Atlantic founder and fellow adventurer Sir Richard Branson.The success of Fossett's 37,000-kilometre journey was put in doubt less than 24 hours earlier, when the discovery of a fuel-system problem raised the prospect of a premature landing in Hawaii. Fuel sensors on the plane differed from readings that indicated how quickly fuel was burning, Project Manager Paul Moore said, forcing the crew to assume that close to 1,200 kilograms of the plane's original 8,200 kilograms of fuel had somehow "disappeared" early in the flight. To increase his chances of reaching the final destination, Fossett flew the final leg of his journey as conservatively as possible. "The aircraft is flying very slowly right now through the air," Fossett ground crew member Jon Karkow told reporters before the landing on Thursday. "We want it to arrive with the most conservative amount of fuel possible, there is no point in rushing things," he said. It's still not clear whether the problem was with the actual fuel reserve or the sensors that track it, but mission control determined that, thanks to a strong tail wind, there was enough fuel to last the flight... Posted by: Cb 2005-03-04 |
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