Voyager Collects a String of New Marks
In addition to having flown around the world without stopping or refueling, the Voyager now holds some of the most challenging records in aviation.
Shortly after landing Tuesday morning, the National Aeronautic Assn. awarded pilots Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager the record for the “world absolute distance” for a straight course--25,012 miles. That doubles the record set in 1962 by Maj. Clyde P. Eviely in an Air Force B-52, an eight-engine jet bomber that he flew from Okinawa to Madrid.
Earlier this year, the Voyager also captured the distance record for a closed course by flying 11,600 miles up and down the coast of California.
The just-completed global flight also gives Rutan and Yeager the world record for a straight course for piston-powered airplanes, topping a 1946 mark set by Cmdr. T. D. Davies flying a Lockheed P2V-1. The Voyager already holds the world record for a closed course for piston-powered airplanes.
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