Helicopter of High Hopes Touches Down in Torrance

High in her cherry-red helicopter, Jennifer Murray has had only a teddy bear for company most of the time.

Sometimes, if the wind is good, the skies clear and the flying easy, she lets her thoughts drift to Amelia Earhart, who also flew alone on an epic journey.

Almost 70 years ago, Earhart became the first woman to pilot a plane solo across the Atlantic Ocean, only to die later in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

This summer, Murray, 60, the wife of a London-based venture capitalist and a grandmother of two, is trying to become the first woman to circle the Earth alone in a helicopter.

Tuesday she touched down in Torrance. So far, her flight has taken her from England to France, Greece, Saudi Arabia, India, Russia and Alaska. Next she heads to Mexico, and then Cuba. From there, it’s up the east coasts of the United States and Canada, and to Greenland, Iceland, and finally back to England.

“People told me I was crazy,” Murray said, climbing out of her helicopter and rushing to greet friends who put her up in their Brentwood home Tuesday night. “But I would say, ‘Go out and live one of your dreams, every day.’ ”

Murray isn’t entirely alone. She is accompanied by the teddy bear, supplied by her daughter, and by a film crew in a light plane, by another helicopter and by a fellow record-seeker, Colin Bodill, 49, who is trying to become the first person to fly around the world in an ultralight, sort of a hang glider with an engine and fuel tanks.

The group is equipped with satellite navigation systems, mobile phones and cameras that feed to a television channel and a Web site that is sponsoring their trip. The Web site is linked to the site of one of Murray’s favorite charities, Operation Smile, which pays for plastic surgery on disadvantaged children with facial deformities. Murray said she hopes her trip will raise $1 million for the charity, mostly by persuading people who visit the Web site to pledge money.

Despite the technology, Murray said she still thinks of herself as an Earhart for the modern age.

And she and her six traveling companions have had their share of close calls since they set off from Brooklands, England, on May 31.

“We’ve had some very marginal weather,” said Murray, who holds dual American and English passports. The weather was so bad during the early legs of the trip that Murray, who three years ago became the first woman ever to circle the globe in a helicopter she flew with her teacher, asked herself whether she had the stamina to carry on.

Then, while flying over China, Bodill drifted out of his assigned airspace and was forced down by Chinese fighter pilots.

Murray, who also runs marathons, said she never set out to become a world record-setting helicopter pilot, but when her husband asked her to learn to fly a helicopter, she got hooked.

After she flew around the world the first time with her teacher, she met Bodill at an air show in England, and he invited her to come along as he circled the globe in his ultralight.

This time, she said, she plans to go home to London and enjoy time with her grandchildren.

Moments after she said this, Bodill invited her to participate in a London-to-Sydney race.

Would she change her plans and go?

Murray shrugged. “I’ve only just heard of this.”