Hurtling Round Globe to Bag Solo Jet Record

Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett raced across the skies above Pakistan on Tuesday in his bid to become the first person to fly a plane around the globe solo, nonstop and without refueling.

His experimental single- engine GlobalFlyer had consumed 25% of its 18,000 pounds of fuel, while Fossett had downed at least three diet chocolate milkshakes, he said in a call from the plane. He took off after sunset Monday from Salina.

“At this time everything is going very well, I’m very happy with the situation and I think we’ve got a good chance,” Fossett said.

His mission control in Salina estimated he would complete the 23,000-mile journey at midday Thursday.

Fossett, 60, holds the record for flying solo around the globe in a balloon, as well as dozens of other aviation and sailing records.

Project manager Paul Moore said Fossett reached his cruising altitude of 45,000 feet over the Atlantic instead of over Saudi Arabia, as originally expected, because of better-than-expected performance of the GlobalFlyer.

The project is being financed by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson, a longtime friend and fellow adventurer.

Early Tuesday, Fossett was flying blind and in the dark over the U.S.-Canada border after experiencing difficulties with his global positioning system.

Moore said Fossett relied on help from mission control to navigate before the problem corrected itself.

Fossett is trying to break several aviation records, including the longest flight by a jet. The record is more than 12,000 miles, set by a B-52 bomber in 1962.

Aviation pioneer Wiley Post made the first solo around-the-world trip in 1933, taking more than seven days and stopping numerous times.

The first nonstop global flight without refueling was made in 1986 by Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, brother of GlobalFlyer designer Burt Rutan.