March 3 in History
2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refuelling
James Stephen Fossett, American businessman and record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer, was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft. He made the first solo nonstop unrefuelled fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world between February 28 and March 3, 2005. He took off from Salina, Kansas and flew eastbound with the prevailing winds, returning to Salina after 67 hours, 1 minute, 10 seconds, without refueling or making intermediate landings. His average speed of 342.2 mph (550.7 km/h) was also the absolute world record for “speed around the world, nonstop and non-refuelled.”
Fossett, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, held world records for five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.
A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club, Fossett set more than one hundred records in five different sports, sixty of which still stood at the time of his death. He broke three of the seven absolute world records for fixed-wing aircraft recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, all in his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. In 2002, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club of the UK, and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007.
Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007, while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. His plane was discovered wrecked in 2008.
-Wikipedia
Photo Caption – Fossett at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility seated in the GlobalFlyer cockpit –nasa.gov
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