Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo, non-stop around the world

March 3, 2005

Steven Fossett (60) landed safely back on US soil earlier this evening to claim the world record for flying non-stop by himself around the world. He landed at 7.49 pm UTC in Kansas after what had been a nerve racking last few hours.

Having left with over 18,100 pounds of fuel on board the futuristic single seater GlobalFlyer, it emerged that 2,600 pounds of fuel had "disappeared". This meant that had the winds gone against Fossett, he would have run out of fuel before the finish line. Luckily however, he was able to conserve fuel due to strong tail winds throughout the last few thousand miles of the journey.