Voyager, After a Tense Start, Begins Odyssey

The tips of the fuel-laden, sagging wings of the experimental aircraft Voyager scraped along the runway as pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager took off Sunday with five tons of aviation fuel in their tanks and a dream in their hearts.

Damage to the plane was not considered serious enough to abort the historic round-the-world flight, but the situation was tense enough that both pilots put on emergency parachutes immediately after lifting off from this Mojave Desert base shortly after 8 a.m.

There was brief concern that exposed wiring in one of the damaged wing tips could start a fire that would destroy the wing, but that worry was laid to rest when Rutan ran through a series of tests that showed the wiring was not damaged. Then the plane headed west. At 8 p.m., Voyager was about 1,600 miles west-southwest of here, a spokesman for the mission said. The craft was expected to pass south of Hilo, Hawaii, about 6 a.m.

Ice on the Wings

The long-delayed adventure began on a morning so cold that the takeoff had to be held up until ice could be removed from the wings. And as the aircraft idled at the end of the 15,000-foot runway, one of its two engines began to overheat, prompting a terse command from Rutan.

“Give it a lick and a promise, and let’s go,” he radioed.

The awkward machine lumbered 14,000 feet down the runway--about 4,000 feet farther than expected--before it lifted into the frigid sky to begin a race against deteriorating weather patterns that threaten to end the flight somewhere along its 27,000-mile course.

But if all goes according to plan, the flight will not end until Christmas Eve, when the Voyager is expected to land back at Edwards and lay claim to the last of the biggest trophies awaiting the daredevils of aviation--the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling.

The peculiar bird, with wings as long as a jetliner’s and a cockpit so small that it has only one seat and one small bunk, carried 9,750 pounds of fuel at takeoff. The heavy load, scattered in 17 fuel tanks throughout the plane, bent the wings in a graceful arch from the fuselage to just above the runway. It had never flown with that much fuel before, and as it taxied down the strip, some spectators said they could hear the wing tips scraping on the concrete.

Craft Was Damaged

After it lifted off at 106 m.p.h., Rutan’s brother, Burt, who designed the Voyager, warned the crew that the craft had been damaged.

“We’ve got some drag there,” Dick Rutan radioed back, a factor that could prove important later in the flight if the added drag increases fuel consumption significantly.

Vertical fins on the end of each wing, called “winglets” and designed to help stabilize the plane in flight, sustained the most damage. But the skin of each wing was ripped slightly, about six inches on the right tip and four inches on the left, and warning lights on both wing tips were ripped off, according to Voyager spokesman Peter Riva.

Rutan, 49, who held the nose of the plane down longer than expected because he did not want to risk a jerky takeoff that could have plunged one of the wings into the ground, blamed himself for the damage.

“I guess I blew it,” he radioed.

Asked by ground controllers how she felt about the incident, Yeager, 34, no relation to famed test pilot Chuck Yeager, replied:

“Aw, heck, if it (the global flight) was easy it would have been done a long time ago.”

‘State of Shock’

The agonizingly long takeoff, according to Riva, left Voyager officials “sort of in a state of shock,” but within a couple of hours they were ready to declare the takeoff successful, and the Voyager was sent on its way.

The plane will require both engines to maintain altitude with a full load of fuel for at least the first 26 hours. Some time during the second day, when enough fuel has been burned, the forward engine will be shut down for maximum efficiency and the plane will continue toward its first passage over land, possibly the Philippines.

Most of the time the craft will cruise between 8,000- and 10,000-feet altitude at speeds ranging from 65 to 120 m.p.h. The speed will depend on the weight of the aircraft, which will lessen as it burns more fuel.

Although the course is subject to change, depending on the weather, the route should take the Voyager over the southern tip of India, across Africa and over the Atlantic.

Course Can Vary

“The course can vary thousands of miles, depending on the weather,” Riva said.

The expected flight time is about 10 days, although the pilots have provisions for 12 days.

Voyager officials obtained permission from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to use satellite links normally used by the space shuttle. That will permit constant communications between the aircraft and flight controllers at Voyager headquarters at Mojave Airport.

“We can talk to them anywhere in the world, any time,” Riva said in an earlier interview.

Although most of the flight will be over water, the Voyager’s enormous wingspan of nearly 111 feet also increases the options for the crew if they should run into trouble. The wings are similar aerodynamicly to the wings of a glider, and even with engine trouble the plane may be able to reach land because of what Riva termed its “fantastic glide-slope ratio” of about 30 to 1. That means that even with no power at all it will travel forward 30 feet for each foot that it drops, although that varies according to weight.

Survival Equipment

“If, God forbid, they should go down in the ocean,” each pilot will be wearing a backpack that includes a small inflatable life raft and several beacons, Riva said.

Throughout the flight, Rutan and Yeager, who have been companions for years, will spend their time in a torturously cramped space about the size of the back seat of a car. The pilots will take turns flying the plane, although Rutan, a former combat pilot, has assigned himself the toughest shifts, including all night flying.

There is only one seat for the pilot, and whoever is off duty must lie on a flat surface that runs along one side of the tiny cockpit.

Neither pilot has suggested that the plane is comfortable. After a five-day test flight earlier this year, Yeager fainted soon after leaving the plane. And Rutan said during a subsequent interview that he had so much trouble sleeping that he wondered from time to time if he would survive the flight.

Began as a Dream

The flight around the world began as a dream shared by Yeager and the two Rutan brothers, one a seasoned test pilot and the other a famed aircraft designer.

It took five years and 22,000 man-hours to build the Voyager.

Rutan and Yeager became obsessed with the task, living through some incredibly lean years during which they were supported almost entirely by a “grass-roots” movement, as Yeager called it.

They had hoped to begin the flight last summer, when weather conditions were at their best, but a series of problems brought delays. Sunday’s launch was an 11th-hour departure for this year with global weather patterns worsening.

Had the flight been delayed a few more days, it probably would have been scrubbed until next spring, at the earliest.

Break Records

During the coming 10 days, the Voyager could break a number of records.

If it flies more than 12,532 miles it will capture the world distance record, set in 1962 by an eight-engine, jet-powered B-52.

But the record it is really after had been considered so far out of reach that few aviators have seriously thought of trying.

To fly nonstop around the world without refueling is regarded by many as the last great trophy in the world of aviation.

No wonder that the Smithsonian Institution has already asked to display the Voyager if the flight is successful.