JET IS DESIGNED TO FLY NONSTOP, UNREFUELED.Byline: Daily News MOJAVE - Aircraft designer Burt Rutan's Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer The Scaled Composites Model 311 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer (FAA: N277SF) is an aircraft designed by Burt Rutan in which Steve Fossett flew a solo nonstop airplane flight around the world in a time of 67 hours 1 minute from February 28, 2005 until March 3, 2005. airplane made its first flight. The March 5 flight begins a series of test flights that should culminate in an attempt to circumnavigate cir·cum·nav·i·gate tr.v. cir·cum·nav·i·gat·ed, cir·cum·nav·i·gat·ing, cir·cum·nav·i·gates 1. To proceed completely around: circumnavigating the earth. 2. the globe with a single pilot, nonstop and unrefueled, Rutan's company, Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often abbreviated as Scaled), formerly the Rutan Aircraft Factory, is located at the Mojave Spaceport, Mojave, California, United States and is headed by aircraft designer Burt Rutan. , said in an announcement. The flight, piloted by Scaled's Project Engineer and Test Pilot Jon Karkow, lasted one hour and 30 minutes. Karkow reported that the aircraft had excellent flying qualities, Scaled Composites said. After liftoff, the aircraft climbed to 12,000 feet and conducted stability tests up to a speed of 110 knots. The tricycle landing gear was retracted re·tract v. re·tract·ed, re·tract·ing, re·tracts v.tr. 1. To take back; disavow: refused to retract the statement. 2. and extended, and the effectiveness of the airplane's descent and landing drogue chutes was evaluated. Financed by Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950 in Shamley Green, Surrey, England), is a British entrepreneur, best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 , the founder of Virgin Atlantic airlines and the Virgin record store chain, the plane is expected to be flown around the world by adventurer Steve Fossett James Stephen Fossett (born April 22, 1944 - missing September 3, 2007) is an American aviator, sailor and adventurer. Fossett made his fortune in the financial services industry and is best known for many world records including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a . Fossett previously was the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world. Rutan has made a record-setting globe-circling airplane before. He designed and built Voyager, a plane that his brother, Dick Rutan, and a co-pilot, Geena Yeager, flew around the world nonstop and unrefueled in 1986 in nine days. GlobalFlyer is expected to make the journey in about 80 hours. The jet-powered GlobalFlyer will also be a much higher-flying aircraft than the propeller-driven Voyager, which flew at under 20,500 feet. GlobalFlyer is expected to fly as high as 52,000 feet - higher than jetliners. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: (color) The Virgin GlobalFlyer designed by Burt Rutan did well in its first of a flight test series last week. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion