This Date in Planelopnik History: 1947, 2005

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn)
02/28/2015 at 10:59 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

Today's date in Planelopnik history, February 28, marks two great feats of long distance flying, and interestingly, both feature a double-hull aircraft. The first was in 1947, when two U.S. Army Air Forces pilots set distance and speed records for a fighter in a North American P-82B Twin Mustang, and the other in 2005, when Steve Fossett piloted the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer non-stop around the world alone.

Prototype XP-82 , 1945

The North American P-82 Twin Mustang was developed as a long-range night fighter to replace the Northrop Black Widow. The name implies that North American simply took two P-51s and bolted them together. However, the P-82 was a completely new aircraft. It was based on the P-51H, but with a lengthened fuselage to accommodate more fuel and electronics. Introduced in 1946, it came too late to see action in Word War II. However, the P-82 was responsible for the first air-to-air victories of the Korean War.

Capt. Thacker and Lt. Ard depart Hickam Field, Hawaii in their P-82B , February 27, 1947

To demonstrate the long distance capabilities of the P-82, on February 28, 1947, U.S. Army Air Forces pilot Captain Robert Thacker, with Lieutenant John Ard as co-pilot, completed a flight from Hickam Field in Hawaii to La Guardia Field in New York City in a P-82B nicknamed "Betty Jo" (they took off on the 27th, but landed on the 28th). The flight lasted 14 hours, 31 minutes, 50 seconds at an average speed of 342 mph. Thacker and Ard made the flight nonstop, without refueling. Their flight set the record for the longest non-stop flight by a piston-powered fighter, as well as the fastest non-stop flight by piston-powered aircraft from Hawaii to New York City. These records still stand.

Ever since the earliest days of aviation, pilots have sought to soar the highest, fly the fastest, go the farthest. Many of the greatest advancements in aviation technology were made in the hopes of finding a place in the record books. For many years, the feat of flying around the world without refueling seemed beyond reach. Then, in 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager made the first successful non-stop circumnavigation of the globe in the Rutan Voyager, an aircraft designed by Dick Rutan's brother Burt. All that remained was for somebody to repeat the feat flying solo. Steve Fossett would be the one to do that.

Steve Fossett was a millionaire businessman with a taste for adventure. He holds no less than 115 world records in many different categories. He holds 23 official world records and nine distance race records in sailing. He set the absolute world speed record for airships in 2004. He set two U.S. transcontinental fixed-wing aircraft records in the same day, and set the east-to-west transcontinental record for non-supersonic fixed-wing aircraft. He also holds records for glider flight, cross-country skiing and mountain climbing. And in 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in any kind of aircraft when he completed the voyage in a balloon.

On February 28, 2005, Fossett took off from Salina, Kansas, flying east, in his effort to circumnavigate the globe alone. He was piloting the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, another design by the brilliant engineer Burt Rutan, and built by Rutan's company Scaled Composites. The GlobalFlyer had an airframe made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic and was powered by a Williams FJ44 turbofan engine. After 67 hours, 1 minute, 10 seconds, Fossett returned to Salina without stopping. He managed an average speed of 342.2 mph, claiming the absolute world record for "speed around the world, nonstop and non-refueled."

Steve Fossett in the cockpit of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer

But Fossett wasn't done. In 2006, he took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and flew around the world again, but rather than land at KSC, he continued across the Atlantic and landed in Bournemouth, England. This flight set the absolute world record for "distance without landing" with a distance of 25,766 statute miles. And if that weren't enough, Fossett made a third trip around the world, setting the absolute record for "distance over a closed circuit without landing." Again departing from Salina, he took off on March 14, 2006 and returned March 17 to the same airport after completing a journey of 25,262 statute miles.

The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer landing at Kennedy Space Center, with drogue chute deployed

On Monday September 3, 2007, Fossett took off from a private airstrip in Nevada flying a single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon airplane. He was never seen alive again. After a month of searching to no avail, Fossett was declared legally dead on February 15, 2008. The crash site was finally located on October 1, 2008.

DISCUSSION (2)

ly2v8-Brian > ttyymmnn
02/28/2015 at 11:04

Fossett's flights should get more recognition than they do. They were impressive feats.

ttyymmnn > ly2v8-Brian
02/28/2015 at 13:43

I would say "extraordinary."