Global Flyer idea originated with Voyager pilot
Dick Rutan first broached idea
BY BILL DEAVER
MOJAVE - While some folks in this world may resist others attempting to exceed their achievements, the first man to fly around the world without refueling does not.
Dick Rutan who, with Jeana Yeager, circumnavigated the world in 1986 in an airplane called Voyager, originated the idea for GlobalOne, the airplane unveiled here last week for an effort to fly solo around the globe.
"Five years ago we were sitting around at Barron Hilton's ranch," recalled Steve Fossett, who will pilot the unusual airplane designed and built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites.
"Dick said he had an idea, something really important to do in aviation, to fly around the world solo nonstop," Fossett said as the remnants of artificial fog from a spectacular, disco-style unveiling swirled around the room.
"I was immediately interested," and Rutan said his brother Burt had a concept for an airplane that could do the job, and that perhaps Fossett might want to talk to him.
"I certainly did want to talk to him, Dick introduced me to Burt, and we started it off," the land, sea, and air record-setter said.
"Five years later, Burt has designed an airplane, Scaled Composites has built an airplane, and it's here today, ready to roll out and start testing," he said.
Dick Rutan said he supports the project.
"I like to see these things happen - it's an advancement in technology, and it's amazing what 20 years of learning, from a rickety little airplane down at low altitude getting beat-up by the weather, taking nine days, now we can" fly in comfort in the stratosphere in just a "handful of hours."
Designing an airplane
Burt Rutan said "These kinds of things never come to us from our governments, regardless of who we vote for today - they come from people like you, so that we can have the support for mankind's achievement - without your support, these things don't happen."
Rutan also thanked the "small development team at Scaled that labored for about 14 months to build what I think is probably the most beautiful airplane in the world."
"It's been 20 years since Voyager was built right here on this flightline, and it's given us the opportunity to apply 20 years of knowledge and experience and capabilities to allow something we thought was impossible 20 years ago, and that is to make a round-the-world, non-refueled flight in the stratosphere, using an efficient turbofan engine - that was something we did not think of back when Voyager was done," Rutan said.
World-class
GlobalFlyer is an airplane with world-class aerodynamic efficiency that will be 82-percent fuel by weight when it takes off. Responding to a reporter's question, Rutan said that a Boeing 747 with 82-percent of its weight in fuel "would not get off the ground," and that, lacking an engine that was twice as efficient as current engines, the jumbo jet could not fly around the world without refueling.
Rutan said the airplane's lift-to-drag ratio, a measure of aerodynamic efficiency, is similar to that of an efficient, competition sailplane rather than that of a conventional airplane.
Fossett said tolerances in the airplane's contraction are quite close and that the biggest risk of the flight is at from structural failure at takeoff and from turbulence during climb out.
Risk factors
"It would be unrecoverable to have a structural failure at low altitude or even to get out of the airplane," Fossett said. Engine failure during the 80-hour flight is an additional risk, but Fossett and Rutan said the airplane's Williams jet engine is highly reliable and was selected over a propellor engine because of its reliability.
"But this will be a test," he said.
Echoing his brother, Burt Rutan noted that some of the biggest risks during the Voyager flight came from the need to fly quite low to avoid turbulence.
"The beauty of this one is that because of its turbofan engine it's going to be flying above most of the weather," he said.
"The biggest risks will be at takeoff and landing," with a very small margin on its ability to get off a very long runway (estimated at 8,000-feet) and will climb very slowly until the landing gear is retracted..
"Probably a bigger risk is the landing because even though this is a large, turbofan engine with a 114-foot wingspan, it will have a stall speed of only about 56 knots when it comes back," Rutan said.
"If there is a gusty crosswind and a likely little bit tired pilot, that's going to be very risky," he said.
Noting that the airplane will be full of fuel, Rutan said it's like a watermelon - "and you're real careful not to drop a ripe watermelon."
Rutan also said that flight testing the airplane poses a challenge because its configuration will vary according to the amount of fuel on board, making it somewhat like several different airplanes at a time.
Significance
Branson said the flight will be "the last great aviation record on earth," noting that Charles Lindbergh was hallucinating after 30 hours of his transatlantic flight and Fossett will be in their air for 80 hours.
"I think (the flight) will one day be compared to the achievement of Lindbergh," Branson said.
Flight testing of GlobalFlyer is expected to begin in about a month, and the round-the-world flight will probably wait until October to take advantage of the jet stream. The flight will take off and land at an airfield somewhere in the U.S. Middle West.
Crossing his legs
On a lighter note Fossett was asked if he was going to "cross his legs" for the full 80 hours.
He said he plans to use "baggies," which can't be tossed out the window because the airplane will be pressurized. (Later, Dick Rutan said that is essentially what he and Jeane Yeager used during their 1986 flight - some things haven't advanced!)
"I think I have to have strong bags!" Fossett said.
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