After nine days in the sky, Rutan Voyager completed the first nonstop flight around the globe on one load of fuel on this day, i.e., December 23, in 1986. The Rutan Model 76 Voyager was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and it landed at California’s Edwards Air Force Base after completing the historic flight that tested the limits of aircraft design and human endurance. The two pilots had left Edwards airbase on December 14 and after spending exactly nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds in the air, they set a flight endurance record.
(Image: @EAA/Twitter)
According to HistoryNet, the Voyager was made mostly of plastic and stiffened paper and it carried more than three times its weight in fuel when it took off from Edwards Air Force Base. By the time the Voyager returned, after flying 25,012 miles around the planet, it had just five gallons of fuel left in its remains operations fuel tank. The aircraft was built by Burt Rutan of the Rutan Aircraft Company without government support and with minimal corporate sponsorship.
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Such an aeroplane, which was essentially a flying fuel tank, had been thought impossible. The aircraft had an extremely light yet strong body and it was made of layers of carbon-fibre tape and paper impregnated with epoxy resin. Voyager’s wingspan was 111 feet, and it had its horizontal stabiliser wing on the plane’s nose rather than its rear.
While building the voyager, Burt had to balance the necessary fuel capacity with the need for increased life to overcome the fuel weight and higher induced drag. The Voyager also required an additional wing area, which could not be built without the air of carbon composites, which boasted a strength-to-weight ratio seven times greater than that of steel. As per reports, in 1986, the Voyager was the largest composite aircraft ever to fly.
(Image: @MDSciecneCenter/Twitter)
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Greatest achievements in history
Dick and Jeana shared the controls. However, due to long periods of turbulence encountered at various points in the journey, Dick did most of the flying. During the flight, the two pilots ate only a fraction of the food brought along, and each had lost about 10 pounds. On December 23, when the aircraft was flying north along the Baja California coast and just 450 miles short of its goal, the Voyager had also plunged from 8,500 to 5,000 feet before an alternate engine was started up.
Till date, Rutan Voyager’s world flight remains one the greatest achievements in aviation history. Thousands of people waited as the two pilots landed, taxied to the parking area and shut down the engines. The plane had landed safely with a few gallons of fuel to spare, completing the first nonstop circumnavigation of the earth by an aircraft that was not refuelled in the air. Now, the Rutan Voyager is on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
(Image: @airandspace/Twitter)
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Rutan Voyager completed first ever global flight on one load of fuel on this day in 1986 - Republic World
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