LONGEST-FLIGHT ATTEMPT DELAYED.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer MOJAVE - Adventurer Steve Fossett's attempt at the longest nonstop HP's brand name for its fault-tolerant servers, which range in size from four CPUs to 4,000 CPUs. The NonStop line was created by Tandem Computers, which was acquired by Compaq, which later became part of HP. flight in history will not take place until next week at the earliest because of an unusual hurdle: Chinese New Year Chinese New Year (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: Chūnjié), or Spring Festival . The Mojave-built GlobalFlyer will stay on the ground at Kennedy Space Center Kennedy Space Center (Cape Canaveral) U.S. launch site for manned space missions. [U.S. Hist.: WB, So:562] See : Astronautics in Florida through the week because of delays in getting clearance for flying over China. Because of the observance of Chinese New Year, the earliest the GlobalFlyer team can get that clearance is Sunday. ``After that, there is a strong possibility of good conditions as early as the 6th,'' the GlobalFlyer team wrote in a mission update. ``So we will be monitoring the round-the-world winds closely to establish if there is a launch window or not.'' The GlobalFlyer team hopes to break the distance records of 24,987 miles for the longest aircraft flight, set by the Voyager airplane in 1986, and the 25,361-mile mark set by the balloon Breitling Orbiter Breitling Orbiter was the name of three different Rozière Balloons made by Cameron Balloons to circumnavigate the globe. The first two balloons never made it, while the third made a successful attempt in 1999. 2 in 1989. Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (born June 17, 1943 in Estacada, Oregon) is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft. designed the GlobalFlyer, built by his 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. company in Mojave. Rutan also designed the Voyager aircraft. The flight will be piloted by Fossett, who previously made a 20,373-mile solo nonstop flight around the world in the GlobalFlyer that concluded March 3. During the longest-flight attempt, Fossett is expected to pilot the aircraft to altitudes of about 45,000 feet and at speeds faster than 285 mph. The attempt, described by the GlobalFlyer team as the ultimate flight, is expected to take about 80 hours to complete. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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