Steve FOSSETT , Chart
B orn April 22, 1944 at 01 58 am in Jackson (TN) (USA)
James Stephen Fossett (born April 22, 1944) is an American aviator, sailor and adventurer known for his appetite for setting world records. Fossett, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, is best known for his five world record nonstop 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.

Fossett grew up in Garden Grove, California and in 1966 he graduated from Stanford University. In 1968 he received an MBA from The Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and today is a member of the Board of Trustees. Fossett became a successful commodities broker in Chicago, founding his own firm, Marathon Securities, and later moved to Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Fossett is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club.

Fossett was reported missing on September 3, 2007 after the plane he was flying over the Nevada desert failed to return. The Civil Air Patrol and others are searching for him and his fate remains unknown.

Records and awards

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

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

In 2006, he again circumnavigated the globe nonstop and unrefueled in 76 hours, 45 minutes in the GlobalFlyer, setting the absolute record for the longest flight by any aircraft in history with a distance of 26,389 statute miles (42,469 km).

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)

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 named PlayStation), Fossett has twice set the prestigious 24 Hour Record of Sailing. In October 2001, Fossett 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 superseded by Bruno Peyron on Orange II.

Airship pilot
Fossett set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships on October 27, 2004. The new record for fastest flight was accomplished with a Zeppelin NT, at 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.

Airplane pilot

Global Flyer
Fossett made the first solo nonstop airplane flight around the world between 28 February 2005 and 3 March 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, non-stop and non-refueled." His aircraft, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, had a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic airframe, with a single Williams FJ44 turbofan engine. It was designed and built by Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, for long-distance solo flight. The fuel fraction, the weight of the fuel divided by the weight of the aircraft at take-off, was 83 percent.

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 to Florida continuing 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 "Distance over a closed circuit without landing" (with 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 recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and Fossett broke three of them in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. All three records were previously held by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager from their flight in the Voyager in 1986. Fossett has contributed the Global Flyer to the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection. It is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithonsian’s National Air & Space Museum.

Transcontinental 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, California to Charleston, South Carolina 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 Ritchie'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, Florida to San Diego, California in 3 hours 29 minutes, at an average speed of 591.96 mph (952.67 km/h).

First trans-Atlantic 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.

Glider speed and distance records
The team of Steve Fossett and Terry Delore (NZL) have set ten official world records in gliders while flying in three major locations: New Zealand, Argentina and Nevada, USA. An 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 0.01 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

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 50,727 feet (15,460 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 previous 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.

Cross Country Ski Racer
As a young adventurer, Fossett was one of the first participants in the Worldloppet, a series of cross country ski marathons around the world. While he had little experience as a skier, he was in the first group of 'citizen athletes' to participate in the series debut in 1979. And in 1980, he became the eighth skier to complete all 10 of the long distance races, earning a Worldloppet medallion.

Scouting
Fossett's interest in adventure started early. As a Boy Scout, he grew up climbing the mountains of California. "When I was 12 years old I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects,"

At age 13 , Fossett earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. As an adult he was named a Distinguished Eagle Scout and awarded the Silver Buffalo by the Boy Scouts of America. Fossett is president of the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA), a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America, and a past member of the World Scout Committee.

Other accomplishments
Fossett has competed in and completed premier endurance sports events, including the 1,165 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, Ironman Triathlon, the English Channel swim, and the 24 hours of Le Mans road race, as well as setting cross-country skiing records. Fossett is also a lifelong mountain climber and has climbed the highest peaks on 6 of the 7 continents.

He has set 93 Aviation World Records ratified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale plus 23 sailing world records ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

Disappearance
At 8:45 am, on Monday, September 3, 2007, Fossett took off in a single-engine plane from a private airstrip known as Flying M Ranch ( 38°36'13?N, 119°00'11?W), near Smith Valley, 30 miles south of Yerington, Nevada, near Carson City and the California border. The airfield is owned by Barron Hilton and is the site of the biennial Barron Hilton Cup invitational soaring encampment. Fossett was searching for a suitable lake bed for a world land speed record attempt.

According to CNN News, the search for Fossett began about six hours later. He was flying in a Bellanca Super Decathlon with tail number N240R registered to the "Flying M Hunting Club, Inc". There has been no signal from the plane's emergency locator radio beacon, which is designed to be automatically activated in the event of a crash.

Fossett took off with enough fuel for four to five hours of flight, according to Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson noted that Fossett apparently did not file a flight plan. On Tuesday night, teams of 10 aircraft search but found to trace of any wreckage after scouring a large chunk of rugged terrain.

References
^ Hildebrand, Kurt. "Searchers looking for world record holder Steve Fossett", The Record-Courier, September 4, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.

Source : Wikipedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

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