11:28 PM CST on Saturday, February 11, 2006

Bloomberg

U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett made an emergency landing today at Bournemouth in southern England at 5:07 local time, earlier than expected, and beat the world flight distance record.

Fossett's record 26,389.3-mile flight was jeopardized when a generator failed, leading to a total electrical breakdown. His aircraft burst two tires on landing and his windscreen was covered with so much ice it was difficult to see through, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer Web site said.

"If we didn't get him down in fifteen minutes, he would have had to have ditched the plane," Steve Ridgeway, chief executive of Virgin Atlantic, said, according to a statement posted on the Web site.

The flight lasted 76 hours and 45 minutes, according to the Web site. He beat the distance record for a flight without stopping or refueling of 24,987 miles, set in 1986. Bournemouth, where he put down, is about 107 miles (172 kilometers) southwest of London. Fossett said in televised remarks after the flight he got about two hours of sleep in the air.

He took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:22 a.m. local time on Feb. 8, and originally was to have landed the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer at Kent International Airport, England, at about 7 p.m. local time today.

Lost Fuel

Fossett's flight also ran into trouble two days ago when his plane lost 750 pounds (340 kilograms) of fuel, wiping out all or most of the spare fuel he was expected to have left at the end of a successful bid. That forced him to slow down and make route alterations in order to take maximum advantage of jet stream winds.

Fossett broke the record set in 1986 by the aircraft Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. Dick's brother, Burt Rutan, and his team at Scaled Composites LLC in Mojave, California, designed GlobalFlyer.

Fossett used the same aircraft last year when he became the first person to fly solo and nonstop around the world, without refueling. A mid-air fuel leak almost ended that flight, and engineers worked to change the venting system to avoid a repeat of the problem. The changes weren't tested completely because of the risks associated with taking off on a full tank. The fuel lost on this bid would have powered the plane for about 1,000 nautical miles (1,852 kilometers), Fossett's team estimates.

Turbulence

Fossett hasn't only had the fuel leak to contend with. Takeoff was longer than expected and two birds hit the plane. The cabin then overheated, remaining over 105 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees centigrade) for eight hours, peaking at 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Over India, the turbulence was so strong, Fossett put on his parachute and prepared to bail out of the plane.

The GlobalFlyer's design enables it to glide for about 200 miles should it run out of fuel. The trimaran-like plane has a wingspan of 114 feet (35 meters). The fuel and landing gear are stored in twin fuselages on either side of the cabin. The jet engine is above and just behind the cockpit.

The plane is constructed to maximize aerodynamics and fuel efficiency, according to the mission Web site, which describes it as "so aerodynamically perfect that the only practical way to descend is using drag parachutes." The structure of the craft is made from graphite and epoxy, and weighs 3,350 pounds when empty -- or about a sixth of the mass of fuel it carries.