Noted aviator missing

Steve Fossett, a high-profile tycoon adventurer who has courted danger while setting world records in aviation and sailing, was missing Tuesday and the subject of an intense search a day after flying off in a single-engine plane from a Nevada airfield.

Federal, Nevada and California authorities, in aircraft and on the ground, focused on a rugged 600-square-mile expanse of mountains and high desert in their search for the wealthy businessman. Officials curtailed their efforts at nightfall, but said crews remained optimistic that Fossett might still be found alive.

“He is an adventurer, he has been in an awful lot of scrapes in his life and he probably has better chances than you and I of walking away from something that was potentially dangerous,” said April Conway, a Nevada National Guard spokeswoman. She said that the effort remained a “search-and-rescue operation.”

Fossett, 63 -- the first pilot to circle the globe nonstop, alone and without refueling -- took off on what was expected to be a short flight at 8:45 a.m. Monday, possibly to scout for a site where he could attempt a new land-speed record.

He flew from a private airfield on the Flying M Ranch, about 60 miles southeast of Carson City and near Yerington, Nev. He was the only one aboard.

The ranch and airfield are owned by aviation enthusiast William Barron Hilton, head of the hotel chain bearing the family name. Authorities said that when Fossett didn’t return within a few hours, friends staying at the ranch briefly searched for him and contacted nearby airports, but within a few hours called authorities. Fossett’s wife, Peggy, was reportedly staying at the ranch while the search was underway.

Federal and state search crews, numbering as many as 100 people, began their efforts late Monday, but failed to turn up strong leads then or Tuesday. Daytime temperatures in the area reached well into the 80s, and overnight lows were expected to dip to about 50 degrees.

“There’s a lot of room in Nevada, and this fellow had four hours of fuel,” said Daniel Burns, a regional manager with the Nevada Division of Emergency Management, which was helping coordinate the efforts. He said the hunt for Fossett and the small plane amounted to “searching for a very, very small item in a very, very large area. That’s the challenge right now.”

Fossett was flying a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon that was kept at the ranch. Though the small plane was designed for aerial acrobatics, authorities and other experts dismissed the notion that Fossett may have been making some risky maneuvers. Fossett doesn’t have a reputation as a daredevil pilot, officials said, and he probably took the craft simply because it was available. A Decathlon “is about as safe and harmless as an airplane can be,” said Peter Garrison, contributing editor of Flying Magazine and the writer of a monthly column on air accidents.

While expressing hope that Fossett landed safely and was awaiting rescue, Garrison said that if he suffered a fatal accident, “It would sort of be like a NASCAR driver getting killed while parking a [Toyota] Corolla or something.”

Authorities said the plane had an emergency locater transmitter and possibly other communications equipment, but speculated that Fossett had not been able to send a signal because the gear’s batteries had been run down or were damaged in the landing. Another complication for search crews was that Fossett didn’t file a flight plan -- one wasn’t required for his trip. Although winds were calm Monday when Fossett took off, they picked up Tuesday, providing stiff turbulence for search pilots exploring the area.

Still, rescuers pointed out that the dry lake beds and little-used roads within the vast, remote expanse being searched may have provided a spot where Fossett could have made an emergency landing.

A multimillionaire who became wealthy trading options in the Chicago commodities market, Fossett has set numerous world records in balloons, airplanes, sailboats, gliders and airships.

According to Fossett’s website, which was taken down Tuesday, he was preparing to challenge the land-speed record next month. Fossett had begun testing a vehicle powered by a turbojet engine that could reach 800 mph, aiming to break the world record of 763 mph set in 1997.

Fossett’s taste for adventure reportedly was spurred by the disappointment he felt after failing to make his school swim team when he was 11. He later swam the English Channel, raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, competed in Hawaii’s Ironman Triathlon, sailed solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and competed in Alaska’s 1,150-mile Iditarod sled dog race.

In 2004, Fossett established an around-the-world sailing record: a 58-day voyage in a maxi-hull catamaran that knocked six days off the previous record. The same year, he and a partner flew a high-performance sailplane for nearly 16 hours in Argentina and set a new world free-distance flying record of 1,358 miles.

But Fossett’s historic solo balloon and airplane flights gave him his greatest recognition.

In 2002 -- after five attempts, including two that nearly cost him his life -- Fossett became the first person to fly a hot-air balloon solo around the world. He remained aloft 13 days, 12 hours, 16 minutes and 13 seconds, before ending his 20,000-mile flight in southern Australia.

It took Fossett 67 hours to become the first pilot to circle the globe nonstop, alone and without refueling in 2005.

During the more than 23,000-mile Kansas to Kansas flight, he flew at an average speed of 342 mph. Sitting in a recliner seat and unable to stand during the flight, he drank chocolate protein shakes for nourishment, solved the problem of bathroom breaks with a catheter and took short, infrequent catnaps.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, the privately funded flight was conducted as a technological and human endurance challenge, with no prize money involved. Fossett’s feat earned the praise of aviation enthusiasts who viewed it as reminiscent of the early days of flying when pilots like Charles Lindbergh captured headlines and the public imagination.

“That’s something I’ve wanted to do for some time,” Fossett, then 60, said after landing in Salina, Kan., where he was greeted by a cheering crowd of about 5,000 people. “I’ve achieved my ambition.”

Said renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, who built the catamaran-shaped plane that Fossett flew on the historic flight: “Steve is a different animal than most of us.”

In a 2003 profile of Fossett in Newsweek, he was called “a model for the 21st century adventurer, one part Captain Cook to three parts Bill Gates,”

But perhaps most notably, the magazine said, Fossett was an “an expert at assessing and managing” risk.

“I’ve chosen these sports -- sailboat racing, gliding, ballooning -- and the fact that they’re dangerous is just a disadvantage that I have to live with,” he told Newsweek. “I don’t enjoy the risks. I spend a lot of time trying to reduce the risks.”

Fossett, who lives in Beaver Creek, Colo., is well-known figure around the Minden Tahoe Airport, the headquarters for the search and rescue efforts. David Small, 46, of Minden, said he used to pump fuel into Fossett’s Lear jet when the adventurer made his frequent visits.

“He doesn’t come across as rich,” Small said. He described Fossett as “excellent. A very nice guy. Very cordial. Always had time for everyone.”

“He represents such an inspiring example of an adventurer,” Small said. “He was no thrill-seeker or risk-taker.” ..

The airstrip Fossett departed from Monday is where once every two years, winners of the Barron Hilton Cup glider competition spend a week flying their gliders amid the windy high desert of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Hilton hosts the winners, providing free lodging, food and use of planes for glider soaring.

The craft Fossett took from the airstrip is one of eight planes registered to an entity called the Flying M Hunting Club Inc., which is based at Hilton’s ranch.

The airplane also is capable of short take-offs and landings, which may have been useful for Fossett in his search for a suitable lake bed for a land speed record attempt, according to a posting on a website.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board database, there has been only one accident, nonfatal, involving the Super Decathlon since production began on the model in 1976. The NTSB blamed the accident on pilot error.

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stuart.silverstein@latimes.com

dennis.mclellan@latimes.com

peter.pae@latimes.com

Times staff writer Eric Bailey and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Steve Fossett

Profession: Aviator; sportsman; retired stockbroker.

Age: 63

Hometown: Born in Tennessee; raised in Garden Grove.

Education: Bachelor of arts, Stanford University, 1966; Master of business administration, Washington University, 1968.

Some of his world records:

1995: First solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a hot-air balloon.

2002: First solo circumnavigation of the globe in a hot-air balloon.

2004: Fastest circumnavigation of the world in sailboat (as skipper).

2005: First solo nonstop circumnavigation of the world in an airplane.

2006: Highest altitude reached in a sailplane (as copilot).

2006: Longest nonstop flight by distance.

Other accomplishments:

1985: Swam the English Channel.

1992: Competed in Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

1993: Drove a Porsche in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in France.

Awards:

Gold Air Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale; the U.S. Sailing Assn.’s 2001 Yachtsman of the Year; a Distinction in Exploration from

the National Geographic Society.

Sources: Newsmakers, Current

Biography, Agence France-Presse, Times research. Graphics reporting by John L. Jackson