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Look, http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/Aircraft/ Introduction/index.jsp. It's not like it is any help whatsoever in researching/developing long distance passenger flights. It's a specially designed plane for one person and lots of fuel to make it able to fly long distances. It just proves he has money, not that he has any scientific merit.

GlobalFlyer is not done flying:

http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/

The NASM also holds a Rutan Vari-Eze:
http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/aircraft/ruta n_eze.htm

So what happened to the fuel? The only mention on the Global Flyer page is the note "fuel readings indicated that the aircraft had lost a significant amount of fuel shortly after take-off". Were the readings wrong? Did they really add a ton of excess fuel to the original amount? Was there something wrong withthe plane? Did he get a favorable wind? Was it all a publicity stunt? What?

This illustrates one of my complaints with the media, its obsession with sensationalism. "OhMyGodThePlanesGonnaCrashAndHesGonnaDIE!!" appears on newspaper headlines worldwide, yet when the plane doesn't, in fact, crash and the pilot doesn't die, the news is ignored. If the news media, or Virgin Atlantic, makes a prediction and are wrong, I'd like to know why.

Why did they think the plane was short of fuel? Does Virgin Atlantic not know how to measure fuel? I'd think that is something that passengers flying their planes should know. Did the media sensationalize an insignificant measurement uncertainty? Their readers should know that, too.

Instead, we get total silence on the matter. I have no idea why misleading informatin was being reported worldwide, and it looks like I'll never know.

I doubt that the global flyer has a 20:1 glide ratio.

Some facts and figures:
- Wing Span: 114ft
- Wing Area: 400ft squared
- Length: 44.1ft
- Height: 13.3ft
- Gross Weight: 22,000 lbs
- Empty Weight: 3,350 lbs

The best glider in the world? No. A darn good one? Oh, yeah.

It's a jet? Yes. It uses Jet-A? No. Please refer to their website. FYI, the respective specific gravities of gasoline and kerosene are 6.82 lb/gal and 6.15 lb/gal.

Ok, I'll grant you that. So let's do the math in reverse.

Let's assume you're right and he landed with no fuel. Let's also assume that TFA is correct that the average cruising burn rate (not takeoff, nor landing) is 102 lbs/hr, and that according to the Mission Log, he started cruising about 12.5 hours into the flight. That means he cruised for 54.5 hours and therefore should have spent about 5559 pounds of fuel in that time.

Let's also assume that he did have a maximum of 15,400 pounds of fuel for the whole trip. Minus the 5559 spent cruising, that means he spent 9,841 pounds of fuel over 12.5 hours getting up to altitude, for a burn rate of about 787 lbs/hr. So, yes, it's many times higher, so you could be correct about that.

The odd part to me is that it took 12.5 hours to get to 45,000 feet. At an average of 60 ft/minute, this is nearly a level ascent, although I will assume that the initial ascent following takeoff was at a much faster rate than the overall ascent. It just seems awfully slow to me to get to that height. I'm also guesstimating that the plane is at least 2x as heavy at takeoff than at cruising speed due to the fuel load, but the burn rate is almost 8x as expensive. This seems terribly non-linear for what is essentially an almost level ascent, even with the additional weight of the fuel. Of course, I'm not an aeronautical engineer, but even so, it just seems inefficient to me overall.

Either that, or the ascent burn was not that much and there was plenty of fuel left in the tank (or there was a much greater leak/lossage than being reported).

Are you questioning my assertion?

http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/News/Thur sday_8_am_Update.jsp

Project Director Paul Moore said that Steve is now burning up about 102 lbs of fuel per hour and that he had the ability to glide nearly 200 miles, "but only in an emergency."

?

Or are you just questioning whether or not that is possible?

Friedmud

Congratulations to Fosset and the folks at Scaled Composites!. I'll bet he's had enough flying for awhile and he's probably wanting to take a shower and freshen up some right away.

I dunno, based on how much time this guy spends trying to go around the world in vessels with small volumes, I'd be willing to wager that he doesn't enjoy showers. ;)

Accordiong to the Live Tracking site he's no longer moving...

I don't know if they received orders of magnitude more hits to the website than expected, but man they did not handle it well. Performance was spotty at best, ranging from completely unresponsive to partly responsive, at least from the two high-speed ISPs I regularly use.

The lack of performance of their website reduces the accomplishment of flying, at least in my mind. This is where the Mars Rover folks got things right. It's easy for folks to feel like a part of the accomplishment there, IMHO partly because the website is accessable, responsive, and on "my" browser when it's wanted. Not so for the global flyer.

The FAI's rules state that a record attempt like this must start and finish at the same airfield and cross all meridians of the globe. What's more the course must not be less than the very precise figure of 36,787.559 kilometres (around 23,000 miles) which is equal in length to the Tropic of Cancer. To allow the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer to catch the vital jet stream winds, the FAI rules don't oblige that record attempts follow the imaginary line of the Tropic itself but simply that the distance flown exceeds it.

From the official website for the project:

For the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer and its pilot Steve Fossett to set a world record for the first solo, non-stop, non-refuelled circumnavigation of the world they will have to follow a strict set of rules laid down by the governing body of aviation record attempts, the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

Here is the official site containing photos, videos, flight logs, etc and Steve's challanges page.

It looks to me like he's going to divert to Hawaii. The plane has continued to head south on the map, when a great circle route would carry it northward. According to the site, the next landing site after Hawaii is Catalina Island. I know a lot of people who have flown to that island and it is a notoriously difficult airport to land at. The airport is on top of a plateau and the winds can be tricky. Plus, it's stormy in California today and there is no ILS at Catalina. No sane pilot would want to fly there in these conditions.

Further, there are another 2 hours of daylight in Hawaii. It's already night in California. So he'd be landing at night, in stormy weather, if he has to land in California. I don't think he'll do it.

It looks to me like he's going to divert to Hawaii. The plane has continued to head south on the map, when a great circle route would carry it northward. According to the site, the next landing site after Hawaii is Catalina Island. I know a lot of people who have flown to that island and it is a notoriously difficult airport to land at. The airport is on top of a plateau and the winds can be tricky. Plus, it's stormy in California today and there is no ILS at Catalina. No sane pilot would want to fly there in these conditions.

Further, there are another 2 hours of daylight in Hawaii. It's already night in California. So he'd be landing at night, in stormy weather, if he has to land in California. I don't think he'll do it.

Actually, there is an "approved" round-the-world course for aircraft because, otherwise, somebody goes up and flies around the North Pole and calls it a success.

I believe they can't just fly wherever they want, either. They have to stick to the Jet-routes which govern commercial flights and, at least in theory, have proper ATC coverage.

Read about it here.

I'm watching this live as Fossett is still quite a ways north west of Hawaii. Look at the map and it is clear that Hawaii is a long ways off course. Fossett would want to stay probably 500 miles north of Hawaii on a great circle route to Kansas. They haven't said anything yet about whether he will abort, but if so he will have to change course to the south.

Read Here

The fuel itself will be a special fuel that has a much lower freezing point that regular aviation fuel.

The Virgin web site has an interesting story about Branson giving Fossett a fancy watch to aid him on the flight,
Watch to the rescue: "When speaking at a press conference the day before take-off of the emergency systems in place in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer if something were to go drastically wrong, Sir Richard Branson promptly took off his watch and gave it to his great friend Steve Fossett." But here's the rest of the story.

According to people who were there, Richard Branson walks into the press conference holding two huge and obviously heavy suitcases when the topic came up about issues regarding the timing of the flight.

Branson sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. "It's now a quarter to six," he says, and goes on to explain the planned timing for the next day's flight.

"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims Steve Fossett, the pilot.

Branson brightens a little. "Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out" - and he shows him a time zone display not just for every time zone in the world, but for the 86 largest metropoli. He hits a few buttons and from somewhere on the watch a voice says "The time is eleven minutes to six" in a posh British accent. A few more buttons and the same voice says something in Japanese. Branson continues, "I've put in regional accents for each city". The display is unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply astounding.

Fossett is struck dumb with admiration.

"That's not all," says Branson. He pushes a few more buttons and a tiny but very hi-resolution map of central London appears on the display. "The flashing dot shows our location by satellite positioning," explains Branson. "View recede ten," Branson says, and the display changes to show the whole of Greater London.

"I need this watch!" says Fossett.

"Oh, no, it's not ready for sale yet; this is a prototype and the inventor is still working out the bugs," says Branson. "But look at this," and he proceeds to demonstrate that the watch is also a very creditable little FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that can measure distances up to 125 meters, a pager with thermal paper printout and most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recordings of up to 300 standard-size books," though I only have 32 of my favourites in there so far" says Sir Richard.

"I've got to have this watch!" says Fossett. "It's just what I need for my flight!"

"No, you don't understand; it's not ready."

"I'll give you whatever you want for it! I'll give up my share of the royalties for the promotional tour after the flight!"

Branson abruptly makes his decision. "OK," he says and peels off the watch, handing it to Fossett, who starts happily away, heading to the plane.

"Hey, wait a minute," Sir Richard calls after Fossett, who turns around warily. Branson points to the two suitcases he'd been trying to lug into the press conference. "Don't forget your batteries."

Guess they couldn't wait for the news conference. Looks to be a bit east of Japan...

Read here

The FAI's rules state that a record attempt like this must start and finish at the same airfield and cross all meridians of the globe. What's more the course must not be less than the very precise figure of 36,787.559 kilometres (around 23,000 miles) which is equal in length to the Tropic of Cancer.

They're going to try to catch the most wind they can.. so there will be some deviation in the flight plans I'm sure as they follow the currents.

-Pan

The aircraft is a trimaran-like construction with two huge external 'booms' which hold the landing gear, and 5,454 pounds of fuel on either side of the pilot's cockpit in the centre on top of which is the single Williams turbofan jet engine.

Live Tracking

Much more information suitable to the slashdot crowd is available at:
http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/
We don't like press releases or watered down news articles.
Also, I bet the US government has some recon plane that has/can do something like this. I know it's possible with mid-air refueling but I bet they can do it without. Just my $0.02
- Cary
--Fairfax Underground: Where Fairfax County comes out to play

http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com/ is slashdotted. Info here http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/GlobalFl yer