Fossett closing in on record
03/03/2005 20:32  - (SA)  

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Steve Fossett's GlobalFlyer passes over the Grand Canyon in Arizona on Thursday. (Thierry Boccon-Gibod, AP)

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Salina - Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett flew over the Kansas-Colorado border on Thursday morning, roughly close enough to Salina to glide to a landing without power and safely complete his nonstop, solo, around-the-world flight.

"I'm really starting to perk up, now realising that I'm getting close to the end," Fossett said earlier in the day after crossing into US airspace over Los Angeles.

Fossett is expected back in the central Kansas town around 13:20 (19:20 GMT), a feat that would make him the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone without stopping or refuelling.

A fuel system problem had raised doubt on Wednesday whether Fossett could complete the 37 000km journey.

But Fossett played down the problem overnight, and he and his flight crew agreed to keep the GlobalFlyer in the air rather than abandon the attempt and land in Hawaii.

Project manager Paul Moore said fuel sensors in the custom-built plane's 13 tanks differed from readings of how quickly its single jet engine was burning fuel.

Moore said the crew had been forced to assume that 1 170kg of the original 8 145kg of fuel "disappeared" early in the flight.

But mission control determined the plane had conserved fuel because of strong tail winds and still had more than 1 440kg, enough to finish the global trek.

It was not clear whether there was an actual leak or just a problem with the sensors, Fossett's team said.

Fossett, 60, already holds the record for flying solo around the globe in a balloon, as well as dozens of other aviation and sailing records.

He is trying to break several aviation records, including the longest flight by a jet.

The record is more than 19 300km, set by a B-52 bomber in 1962.

Aviation pioneer Wiley Post made the first solo around-the-world trip in 1933, taking more than seven days and stopping numerous times.

The first non-stop global flight without refuelling was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, brother of GlobalFlyer designer Burt Rutan.

The project is being financed by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson, a long time friend and fellow adventurer.

- AP

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