Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager Pilot the First Aircraft to Fly Around the World Nonstop
Overview
In December 1986 two pilots, Dick Rutan (1939-) and Jeana Yeager (1952-), landed an odd-looking aircraft called Voyager in the California desert after making the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling. The Voyager pilots spent 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds aloft in a cabin the size of a phone booth. The 25,012-mile (40,244 km) flight was the last major milestone left in aviation and was the result of six years of work. Pilot Dick Rutan and his brother Burt, Voyager's designer, intended the plane and the round-the-world flight to usher in a new era in aviation that would take advantage of novel materials and designs.
Background
The concept of an extremely efficient plane capable of flying around the world began as a sketch on a restaurant napkin when Dick Rutan first proposed the idea to his brother. The original design was of a flying fuel tank that would accommodate as much fuel as possible. Burt determined from the original napkin drawing that a typical aluminum construction for the aircraft would be too big to build, so the decision was made to use composite resin materials that would be lighter and tougher than metal and more fuel efficient.
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