Global Flyer

[Billy Ruffian]

I think this would be the right place ...

Did anyone here follow the Global Flyer flight? Pretty amazing, IMO.

Yes, Dick Rutan and Joanna Yeager did the non-stop circumnavigation first, but not solo.

Burt Rutan is an aeronautical genius.

[edbermac]

1. The flight took 67 hours; when the hell did this guy sleep, if at all?

:wow:

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Autopilot? Drugged up like our airmen? Smokin' crack the whole way?

Either way.... amazing!

[Billy Ruffian]

3. Here's the web page:

Global Flyer I saw somewhere on the site that he slept a couple of minutes at a time.

IIRC, 67 hours isn't a terribly tough stretch to go without sleep.

I suspect that this plane flew very stable ... little control input needed. Don't remember reading about what, if any autopilot. It could be that for an FAI record, you can't have an autopilot.

There was also a mention of setting a record for distance without landing, supposedly set by a B-52. That one I just don't get, since the Global Voyager did a non-stop, non-refuel, circumnavigation about 10 years ago (or more?)