Test Flight of Round-the-World Plane Cut Short

A bizarre-looking plane designed to fly around the world without refueling was forced to land Wednesday, only hours after beginning what was supposed to be a marathon test flight, crew officials said.

The Voyager--a futuristic aircraft that looks like a toy glider magnified hundreds of times --safely landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the coast after trouble developed, an Air Force spokesman said.

“We had an equipment failure on the rear propeller. We expect at the moment that it’s a minor failure, something that we can repair pretty rapidly,” crew spokesman Peter Riva said in Mojave. Pilots Dick Rutman and Jeana Yeager were not hurt, he said.

The plane left its hangar here at 8 a.m. for what was supposed to be a five-day, 10,000-mile non-stop border-to-border flight, looping the state of California. The propeller trouble forced the pilots to bring the plane down at 3 p.m.

“It wasn’t an emergency but it was a critical situation,” Riva said. “They had everything under control at all times.”

The plane is the brainchild of Mojave pilot Rutman, who said he is intrigued by the idea of non-stop flight. The aircraft--which incorporates light, strong graphite and a honeycomb core--was designed by Rutman’s brother Burt.

The border-to-border test flight would have equaled about two-fifths of the 25,000-mile trip around the globe.

Riva said he is unsure whether Wednesday’s problems will affect the Sept. 14 take-off date. The matter “will be ascertained when the plane is back in the hangar,” he said.