Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer
Scaled Composites
would like to congratulate Steve Fossett and his team on
his latest world-record milestone! We
are inspired by the incredible stamina exhibited by Steve
in enduring 76 hours and 45 minutes in a cramped cabin while
circumnavigating the globe and establishing a new aviation
long-distance record at 26,389.3 miles. It was indeed an
Ultimate Flight!
The GlobalFlyer is a single seat, turbofan
powered airplane designed to fly around the world nonstop,
unrefueled. It achieved this milestone for the first time
on March 03, 2005 after 67 hours and one minute of flying
time. With that, Pilot Steve Fossett set the record for
fastest time around the world unrefueled. The GlobalFlyer
took off and landed in Salina, Kansas.
The second world-record flight was completed
on February 11, 2006 when Pilot Steve Fossett made an emergency
landing at Bournemouth Airport in England. Kennedy Space
Center was chosen for the takeoff, which took place on February
8. The flight had many stressful moments. Despite
this, Steve was able to accomplish the goal of the "Ultimate
Flight" by breaking the previous world distance record
for an airplane, which was set by the Voyager in 1986 (24,987
miles), as well as the aviation long-distance record set
by the Breitling Orbiter Balloon in 1999 (25,361 miles).
The 'Voyager'
aircraft which took Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager around
the world non-stop could well be considered GlobalFlyer's
'big sister', but evolution and invention on the part of
Burt himself and Jon Karkow has certainly played its part
in making this aircraft unique.
Aerodynamics are key to this aircraft, and
its configuration is optimized for range and fuel efficiency.
The aircraft's shape has been designed using computational
fluid dynamics to predict how the aircraft's surfaces will
behave in flight. The aircraft is so aerodynamically efficient
that the only practical way to descend is using drag parachutes.
As the aircraft is only required to land once, these aren't
detachable and take time to reset.
The
aircraft is a trimaran-like construction with two huge external
'booms' which hold the landing gear, and 5,454 pounds of
fuel on either side of the pilot's cockpit in the center
on top of which is the single Williams turbofan jet engine.
The construction materials used for the structure of this
aircraft are all graphite/epoxy. The stiffest carbon fibers
are used in the construction of the wings, and the skin
is a sandwich of graphite/epoxy and Aramid honeycomb.
The aircraft doesn't have what is known as
'deicing' or 'anti-ice' measures. This means that it is
not able to fly in 'icing' conditions. In addition, it does
not cope with turbulence very well in the early part of
the flight when the aircraft is heavy and structural margins
low; so weather will be an important factor in choosing
when and where to take off from.
The pilot sits in the main fuselage, the center
pod, just behind the nose landing gear and below the engine.
he also sits in front of the main fuel header tank which
feeds the engine. Early on in the project, there were huge
obstacles to overcome caused by engine noise levels, but
those were quickly overcome with the addition of insulation.
The cabin is pressurized because of the altitude ,which
gives a 'cabin altitude' of 10,000 feet at the 45,000 feet
the plane actually flys at.
There are thirteen fuel tanks all in all,
and on take-off, it is expected that this aircraft will
be 83% fuel by weight. Getting fuel to where it's needed
whilst maintaining the balance and stability of the aircraft
is a feat that will require constant supervision and monitoring.
The fuel itself is a special fuel that has a much lower
freezing point than regular aviation fuel.
Some facts and figures:
-
Wing
Span: 114ft
-
Wing
Area: 400ft squared
-
Length:
44.1ft
-
Height:
13.3ft
-
Gross
Weight: 22,000 lbs
-
Empty
Weight: 3,350 lbs
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