American adventurer Steve Fossett [Credit: Carl De Souza—AFP/Getty Images]
American adventurer (born April 22, 1944, Jackson, Tenn.—disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, northern Nevada) set a number of world records in aviation and sailing; he became the first balloonist to circumnavigate the world alone in 2002 and made the first nonstop solo global flight in an airplane in 2005. Fossett undertook a number of challenges, including swimming the English Channel (1985), before gaining international attention with his ballooning feats. After five unsuccessful attempts to circumnavigate the globe, in 2002 he started at Northam, W.Aus., in the balloon Spirit of Freedom and successfully crossed his starting point on July 2. On Feb.
28, 2005, he took off from Salinas, Kan., piloting the GlobalFlyer, a specialized plane that featured 13 fuel tanks, and returned there on March 3, some 67 hours later. Fossett undertook the longest nonstop airplane flight, taking off on Feb. 8, 2006, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the GlobalFlyer and making an emergency landing in Bournemouth, Eng., on February 11, having covered a record 42,469.5 km (26,389.3 mi). As a sailor, Fossett recorded the quickest transatlantic crossing—4 days 16 hr 28 min 6 sec—in 2001, and in 2004 he circumnavigated the globe in an unprecedented time of 58 days 9 hr 32 min 45 sec. His other achievements included the fastest flight (1,194.17 km/hr [742.02 mph]) in a nonsupersonic airplane (2001) as well as a number of gliding records. Fossett was reported missing after his single-engine plane disappeared during a scouting mission. In November his wife sought to have him declared legally dead.
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American adventurer Steve Fossett [Credit: Carl De Souza—AFP/Getty Images]
