STEVE FOSSETT

'James Stephen Fossett' (born April 22, 1944) is an American aviator, sailor and adventurer known for his appetite for setting world records.
Fossett, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, is best known for his five world record nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo airplane pilot. Fossett has set 116 records in five different sports, 60 of which still stand.^[1]
Fossett is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club.
Fossett was reported missing on September 3, 2007 after the plane he was flying over the Nevada desert failed to return.^[2] The Civil Air Patrol and others are searching for him and his fate remains unknown.
Internet users are being asked to volunteer to help review satellite images and flag potential areas of interest which will be instrumental in the search and rescue efforts.
If you are interested in helping, please click here to participate in the search effort.

Early years

Fossett was born in Jackson, Tennessee. His family later moved, and he grew up in Garden Grove, California.
Fossett's interest in adventure began early. As a Boy Scout, he grew up climbing the mountains of California. "When I was 12 years old I climbed my first mountain, and I just kept going, taking on more diverse and grander projects." Search continues for aviation adventurer Steve Fossett Fossett said that he did not have a natural gift for athletics or team sports, so he focused on activities that required persistence and endurance.^[3]
At age 13, Fossett earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. As an adult he was named a Distinguished Eagle Scout and awarded the Silver Buffalo by the Boy Scouts. Fossett is President of the National Eagle Scout Association, a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts, and a past member of the World Scout Committee.
In college at Stanford University, Fossett was already known as an adventurer; his fraternity brothers convinced him to swim to Alcatraz and raise a banner that read "Beat Cal" on the wall of the prison, closed two years previously. In 1966, Fossett graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics.^[4] After graduation, Fossett spent the summer in Europe climbing mountains and swimming the Dardanelles.

Business career

In 1968, Fossett received an MBA from The Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where Fossett has been a longtime member of the Board of Trustees.^[5]
Fossett then became a successful commodities broker in Chicago on the floor of the Chicago Board Options Exchange. He eventually founded his own firms, Marathon Securities and Lakota Trading, from which he made millions on the stock market and which he would later use to finance his adventures.^[6] He founded Lakota Trading in 1980.^[7] As of 1997, it was the largest company matching buyers and sellers on the floor of the exchange. He later sold most of his business interests and moved to Beaver Creek, Colorado.^[8] Fossett said, "As a floor trader, I was very aggressive and worked hard. Those same traits help me in adventure sports."

Personal life

Fossett has been married for almost 40 years to Peggy Fossett (Viehland), originally from Richmond Heights, Missouri. They married in 1968 and have no children. Advanced Recon System Aids Fossett Search Frances Fiorino The Fossetts have homes in Beaver Creek, Colorado and Chicago and a vacation home in Carmel, California.
Fossett has become well-known in the UK for his friendship with billionaire Richard Branson, who calls Fossett "half-human" and has financed some of Fossett's adventures.

Records

Overview

Steve Fossett is well-known for his world record-setting adventures in balloons, sailboats, gliders, and powered aircraft. He is an aviator of exceptional breadth of experience, from his quest to become the first person to achieve a solo balloon flight around the world (finally succeeding on his sixth attempt, in 2002) to setting, with co-pilot Terry Delore, 10 of the 21 Glider Open records, including the first 2,000 km Out-and-Return, the first 1,500 km Triangle and the longest Straight Distance flights. His achievements as a jet pilot in a Cessna Citation X include records for U.S. Transcontinental, Australia Transcontinental, and Round-the-World westbound non-supersonic flights.^[9]
In 2005, Fossett made the first solo nonstop and unrefueled circumnavigation of the world in 67 hours in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, a single engine jet airplane.
In 2006, he again circumnavigated the globe nonstop and unrefueled in 76 hours, 45 minutes in the ''GlobalFlyer'', setting the record for the longest flight by any aircraft in history with a distance of 26,389 statute miles (42,469 km).
He has set 93 aviation world records ratified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale,^[10] plus 23 sailing world records ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council.

Balloon pilot

On February 21, 1995, Fossett landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada, after taking off from South Korea, becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.^[11]
In 2002, he became the first person to fly around the world alone, nonstop, in a balloon. He launched the 10-story high balloon ''Spirit of Freedom'' from Northam, Western Australia, on June 19, 2002 and returned to Australia on July 3, 2002, subsequently landing in Queensland, Australia. Duration and distance of this solo balloon flight was 13 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes (14 days 19 hours 50 minutes to landing), 20,626.48 statute miles (33,195.10 km). The balloon dragged him along the ground for 20 minutes at the end of the flight. The control center for the mission was located in St. Louis. Fossett's top speed during the flight was 186 miles per hour over the Indian Ocean. Only the capsule survived the landing; it was taken to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, where it was to be displayed next to Charles Lindbergh's plane ''Spirit of St. Louis''.^[12] The trip set a number of records for ballooning: Fastest (200 miles per hour/322 km, breaking his own previous record of 166 miles per hour/270 km), Fastest Around the World (13.5 days), Longest Distance Flown Solo in a Balloon (20,482.26 miles), and 24-Hour Balloon Distance (3,186.80 miles on July 1).^[13]
While Fossett had financed five previous tries himself, his successful record-setting flight was sponsored by Bud Light. Fossett said that he hoped his flight would inspire others to achieve their personal goals in their own lives.

Sailor

Steve Fossett has been one of the world's most accomplished sailors. Speed sailing is Fossett's speciality and from 1993 to 2004, he dominated the record sheets, setting 23 official world records and nine distance race records. He is recognized by the World Sailing Speed Record Council as "the world's most accomplished speed sailor."
On the maxi-catamaran ''Cheyenne'' (formerly named ''PlayStation''), Fossett has twice set the prestigious 24 Hour Record of Sailing. In October 2001, Fossett and his crew set a transatlantic record of 4 days 17 hours, shattering the previous record by 43 hours 35 minutes — an increase in average speed of nearly seven knots.
In early 2004, Fossett, as skipper, set the world record for fastest circumnavigation of the world (58 days, 9 hours) in ''Cheyenne'' with a crew of 13. Both the Transatlantic and Round the World records have been superseded by Bruno Peyron on ''Orange II''. As of 1997, Fossett held the world record for crossing the Pacific Ocean in his 125-foot sailboat, the ''PlayStation'', which he accomplished on his fourth try.

Airship pilot

Fossett set the Absolute World Speed Record for airships on October 27, 2004. The new record for fastest flight was accomplished with a Zeppelin NT, at a recorded average speed of 62.2 knots (115.0 km/h, 71.5 mph.) The previous record was 50.1 knots (92.8 km/h, 57.7 mph) set in 2001 in a Virgin airship.

Airplane pilot

Global Flyer

Fossett at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility seated in the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer cockpit

Fossett made the first solo nonstop airplane flight around the world between 28 February 2005 and 3 March 2005. He took off from Salina, Kansas and flew eastbound, with the prevailing winds, returning to Salina after 67 hours, 1 minute, 10 seconds, without refueling or making intermediate landings. His average speed of 342.2 mph (550.7 km/h) was also the absolute world record for "speed around the world, non-stop and non-refueled." His aircraft, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, had a Carbon fiber reinforced plastic airframe, with a single Williams FJ44 turbofan engine. It was designed and built by Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites, the company which also designed the first man-made spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, for long-distance solo flight. The fuel fraction, the weight of the fuel divided by the weight of the aircraft at take-off, was 83 percent.^[14]^[15]^[16]
On February 11 2006, Fossett set the absolute world record for "distance without landing" by flying from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, around the world eastbound, then upon returning to Florida continuing across the Atlantic a second time to land in Bournemouth, England. The official distance was 25,766 statute miles (41,467 km) and the duration was 76 hours 43 minutes.
The next month, Fossett made a third flight around the world in order to break the absolute record for "Distance over a closed circuit without landing" (with takeoff and landing at the same airport). He took off from Salina, Kansas on 14 March 2006 and returned on 17 March 2006 after flying 25,262 statute miles (40,655 km).
There are only seven absolute world records for fixed-wing aircraft recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale and Fossett broke three of them in the Virgin Atlantic ''Global Flyer''.^[17] All three records were previously held by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager from their flight in the Voyager in 1986. Fossett has contributed the ''Global Flyer'' to the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.^[18] It is on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum.

Transcontinental aircraft records

Fossett set two U.S. transcontinental airplane records in the same day. On February 5 2003, he flew his Cessna Citation X jet from San Diego, California to Charleston, South Carolina in 2 hours, 56 minutes, 20 seconds, at an average speed of 726.83 mph (1169.73 km/h) to smash the transcontinental record for non-supersonic jets.
He returned to San Diego, then flew the same course as co-pilot for fellow adventurer Joe Ritchie in Ritchie's turboprop Piaggio Avanti. Their time was 3 hours, 51 minutes, 52 seconds, an average speed of 546.44 mph (879.46 km/h), which broke the previous turboprop transcontinental record held by Chuck Yeager and Renald Davenport.
Fossett also set the east-to-west transcontinental record for non-supersonic fixed-wing aircraft on 17 September 2000. He flew from Jacksonville, Florida to San Diego, California in 3 hours, 29 minutes, at an average speed of 591.96 mph (952.67 km/h).

First trans-Atlantic flight re-creation

On 2 July 2005, Fossett and co-pilot Mark Rebholz re-created the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic which was made by the British team of John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown in June 1919 in a Vickers Vimy biplane. Their flight from St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada to Clifden, Ireland in the open cockpit Vickers Vimy replica took 18 hours 25 minutes with 13 hours flown in instrument flight conditions. Since there was no airport in Clifden, Fossett and Rebholz landed on the 8th fairway of the Connemarra Golf Course.

Glider speed and distance records

The team of Steve Fossett and Terry Delore (NZL) have set ten official world records in gliders while flying in three major locations: New Zealand, Argentina and Nevada, USA. An asterisk (
★ ) indicates records subsequently broken by other pilots.

★ Distance (Free) World Record 2192.9 km, 4 December 2004

★ Triangle Distance (Free) World Record
★ 1509.7 km, 13 December 2003

★ Out and Return Distance (Free) World Record
★ 2002.44 km, 14 November 2003

★ 1500 Kilometer Triangle World Record 119.11 km/h (74.02 mph), 13 December 2003

★ 1250 Kilometer Triangle U.S. National Record 143.48 km/h (89.51 mph). Exceeded world record by 0.01 km/h, 30 July 2003

★ 750 Kilometer Triangle World Record
★ 171.29 km/h (106,44 mph), 29 July 2003

★ 500 Kilometer Triangle World Record
★ 187.12 km/h (116.27 mph), 15 November 2003

★ 1000 km Out-and-Return World Record
★ 166.46 km/h (103.44 mph), 12 December 2002

★ 1500 Out-and-Return World Record
★ 156.61 km/h (97.30 mph), 14 November 2003

★ Triangle Distance (Declared) World Record
★ 1502.6 km, 13 December 2003

★ Out-and-Return Distance (Declared) World Record
★ 1804.7 km, 14 November 2003

Glider altitude record

Fossett and co-pilot Einar Enevoldson flew a glider into the stratosphere on August 29 2006. The flight set the Absolute Altitude Record for gliders at 50,727 feet (15,460 m). Since the glider cockpit was unpressurized, the pilots wore full pressure suits (similar to space suits) so that they would be able to fly to altitudes above 45,000 feet. Fossett and Enevoldson had made previous attempts in three countries over a period of five years before finally succeeding with this record flight. This endeavor was known as the Perlan Project.

Cross-country skiing

As a young adventurer, Fossett was one of the first participants in the Worldloppet, a series of cross country ski marathons around the world. While he had little experience as a skier, he was in the first group of 'citizen athletes' to participate in the series debut in 1979. And in 1980, he became the eighth skier to complete all 10 of the long distance races, earning a Worldloppet medallion. He has also set cross-country skiing records.

Other accomplishments

Fossett has competed in and completed premier endurance sports events, including the 1,165 mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, in which he finished 47th on his second try in 1992, and swimming across the English Channel on his fourth try in September 1985 with a time of 22 hours, 15 minutes. Fossett has run in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii (finishing in 1996 in 15:53:10)^[19] , the Boston Marathon, and the Leadville Trail 100, a 100-mile Colorado ultramarathon which involves running up elevations of more than 14,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. He also competed in the 24 hours of Le Mans road race in 1996, along with the Paris to Dakar Auto Rally.
Fossett is a lifelong mountain climber and has climbed the highest peaks on six of the seven continents.

Previous attempts at records

Fossett tried six times over seven years for the first solo balloon circumnavigation. His fifth attempt cost him $1.25 million of his own money; his sixth and successful attempt was commercially sponsored. One unsuccessful balloon flight ended when Fossett plummeted five miles into the Coral Sea off Australia. Two of the attempts were launched from Busch Stadium in St. Louis, and Washington University in St. Louis served as control center for four of the six flights, including the record-breaking one.
In 1998, one of the unsuccessful attempts at the ballooning record ended with a five-mile plummet into the Coral Sea off the coast of Australia that nearly killed Fossett; he waited 72 hours to be rescued, at a cost of $500,000.^[20]^[21] The first attempt began in the Black Hills of South Dakota and ended in New Brunswick 1800 miles later. The second attempt, launched from Busch Stadium, cost $300,000 and lasted 9,600 miles before being downed halfway in a tree in India; the trip set records at the time for duration and distance of flight (with Fossett doubling his own previous record) and was called ''Solo Spirit'' after Lindbergh's ''Spirit of St. Louis''. Fossett slept an average of two hours a night for the six-day journey, conducted in below-zero temperatures. After taking too much fuel to cross the Atlantic Ocean and circling Libya for 12 hours while officials decided whether or not to allow him into their airspace, Fossett did not have enough fuel to finish the flight. That year, Fossett flew farther for less money than better-financed expeditions (including one supported by Richard Branson) in part due to his ability to fly in an un-pressurized capsule, a result of his heavy physical training at high altitudes. The ''Solo Spirit'' capsule was put on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum across from the ''Apollo 11''.
After making an unscheduled landing in a plane, Fossett once walked 30 miles for help.

Disappearance

At 8:45 am, on Monday, September 3 2007, Fossett took off in a single-engine airplane from a private airstrip known as Flying-M Ranch (), near Smith Valley, Nevada, 30 miles south of Yerington, near Carson City and the California border. The airfield is owned by Barron Hilton^[22] and is the site of the biennial Barron Hilton Cup invitational soaring encampment. Fossett was searching for a suitable lake bed for a world land speed record attempt.
According to CNN, the search for Fossett began about six hours later. He was flying in a Bellanca Super Decathlon fixed-wing, single-engine airplane with tail number N240R registered to the "Flying M Hunting Club, Inc". There has been no signal from the plane's emergency locator transmitter (ELT), Steve Fossett was looking for lake beds suitable for land speed record attempt designed to be automatically activated in the event of a crash, but of an older type notorious for failing to operate after a crash.^[23] Fossett may have also been wearing a Swiss-made Breitling Emergency wristwatch with a manually operated ELT having a range of up to 90 miles, but no signal has been received from it either.^[24]
Fossett took off with enough fuel for four to five hours of flight, according to Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia S. Ryan.^[25]
A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson noted that Fossett apparently did not file a flight plan, but was not required to do so.^[26]^[27] On Tuesday night, teams of 10 aircraft searched but found no trace of wreckage after scouring a large area of rugged terrain.^[28] By the fourth day, the Civil Air Patrol was using 14 aircraft in the search effort, including one equipped with the ARCHER system that can automatically scan detailed imaging for a given signature of the missing aircraft.^[29] As of September 8, search crews had found six previously uncharted crash sites, but none related to Fossett's disappearance. Out of hundreds of tips received, authorities said they were focusing on four they considered credible.^[30] About two dozen aircraft are involved in the search. ^[31]
On September 7, 2007, Google Inc. helped the search for the aviator through its connections to contractors that provide satellite imagery for its Google Earth software. Richard Branson, Fossett's British billionaire friend, said he and others were coordinating efforts with Google to see if any of the high-resolution pictures might include Fossett's aircraft.^[32] On September 8, new high resolution imagery was made available via the Amazon Mechanical Turk beta website in a manner that anyone can search and flag potential areas to search.

Awards and honors

In 2002, Fossett received aviation's highest award, the Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and in July 2007, he was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame.
In February 2002, Fossett was named America's Rolex Yachtsman of the Year at the New York Yacht Club. He was the oldest recipient of the award in its 41-year history, and he was the only recipient to fly himself to the ceremony in his own plane.

References

1. Profile: Steve Fossett Sam Wilson
2. Searchers looking for world record holder Steve Fossett Kurt Hildebrand

3. Pioneer In the Sky
4. Branson fears missing Fossett is injured
5. Steve Fossett's plane is missing Bill Smith
6. Rescuers to Resume Search for Plane Carrying Aviation Adventurer Steve Fossett
7. Adventure defines Steve Fossett Peggy Mihelich
8. Rich Roberts Reports
9. Fossett Sets Another World Record, , , , ''Eagletter'', Fall 2006
10. List of records established by 'Steve FOSSETT (USA)':
11. Some of Fossett's Accomplishments
12. U.S. Balloonist Sets Record in Circling Globe
13. NOAA helps guide balloonist around the world
14. Fossett sets record for longest nonstop flight February 11, 2006
15. "''Fossett sets solo flight record''" - BBC News article dated March 3, 2005
16. "''Fossett makes history''" - CNN.com article dated March 4, 2005
17. Current Absolute General Aviation World Records
18. Adventurer Steve Fossett No Stranger to Tall Odds
19. 1996 Ironman Triathlon World Championship
+
20. What did Steve Fossett do for us?
21. Steve Fossett Breaks Ballooning World Record
22. Millionaire Aviator Missing on Short Flight - New York Times Friess, Steve
23. Fossett search stresses need for new beacons Levin, Alan
24. Rescue Crews Find No Sign Of Missing Adventurer Geis, Sonya
25. Aviation record-holder Steve Fossett missing
26. FAA: Adventurer Fossett's Plane Missing Scott Sonner
27. Steve Fossett reported missing by US aviation authorities
28. Kansascity.com, Adventurer’s routine flight disappears into a mystery
29. Advanced Recon System Aids Fossett Search Fiorino, Frances
30. Aviator's Fate Puzzles Search Crews Gerdner, Tom
31. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/08/fossett.ap/index.html
32. Yahoo.com, Google helps in search for aviator

External links

★ Official website

★ Official website via Internet Archive

★ Links to QuickTime videos, including a virtual tour inside the GlobalFlyer

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.

psst.. try this: add to faves

	Hotel Valley Ho (Caf� ZuZu, VH Spa)
	Scottsdale CVB
	Interpro Travel Services Inc.
	traverse jamaica
	Pelican Executive Suites
	Time Out for Touring Inc.
	Travelonly - Dave Corless
	Travelonly - Allan Jenkins
	Heavenly Paradise Getaways
	Temptation Resort Spa Cancun