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Fuel Loss May Cut Short GlobalFlyer's Journey

Posted by timothy on from the knock-on-wood dept.

chris mazuc writes "Apparently the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer has lost 2,600 lbs of fuel and might be forced to abort the attempt." According to the article, "Jon Karkow from Scaled Composites was unable to say whether it was due to leakage or evaporation. "We really don't know what it is... It's more than likely a system issue, such as a fuel venting line. It's been very puzzling for us, and we saw it quite early on.".

2 of 317 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Rigorous Testing? by gr8_phk · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I suspect they never tested at full capacity because it might not be real safe to land with that much fuel. At 85 percent fuel by weight it'd be dangerous to land, and the handling probably isn't really great fully loaded. The only way to test with full load then would be to fly for 3 days. What's wrong with dumping the excess fuel before landing? I dunno. The web site also has a story about some problems weighing it before takeoff - not that they connect the two.

    Has he left Japan yet?

    I was pleased to read that Williams International (who made the engine) is right here in Michigan, not too far for me to work - unfortunately they had no postings for software people :-(

  2. Re:Bit of a difference... by worst_name_ever · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The Global Flyer has to be the fastest machine

    No, it just has to be faster than the last aircraft to circle the globe nonstop and unrefuelled with only a single pilot!

    --

    In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.