Steve Fossett
On March 3, 2005, after 67 hours aboard his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, he became the first person to fly alone around the world nonstop.
- By Katy June-Friesen
- Smithsonian magazine, September 2006, Subscribe
(Page 2 of 3)
Aviation is developing, but in a very subtle way to be more economically efficient, which isn't very dramatic and not exciting for the public as observers. Most of the firsts in aviation were done in the first half of the 20th century. The speed and altitude achievements were done in the 60s and 70s. They are not building airplanes to go as fast or as high anymore, and that's disappointing to those of us who look to aviation for excitement. So I'm involved in the adventures that used to take place.
Recently you've been flying a glider. What new projects are you working on?
Our Perlan Project is to fly a glider into the stratosphere. These attempts will take place in September in southern Argentina. I'm flying with my copilot, Einar Enevoldson; we hope to fly to 62,000 feet.
What is the previous record?
The previous record is 49,000 feet, set by Bob Harris in 1986. He maxed out the altitude record for gliders using normal oxygen equipment—nobody can fly any higher than he flew. Our approach is to use full-pressure suits. They're very much like space suits. We're not restricted on altitude when wearing a full pressure suit.
One of your partners in this is NASA.
We have a Space Act agreement with NASA. We're collecting data and evaluating the turbulence patterns at these high altitudes. Aircraft like Global Hawks and U-2s are much more fragile than our glider and they're very much at risk in these high-altitude wave patterns. We can actually fly into these waves and not be afraid of our glider breaking up.
You’ve tried several times to break this altitude record. What makes it so difficult to do?
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