The first non-stop flight around the world by plane. Around the Earth without refueling: top world air travel records. The difficult stage of a trip around the world

January 11, 1935 American pilot Amelia Earhart committed a single flight across the Pacific Ocean, which no one in the world had ever managed before. This was the peak of the career of the brave American, her most impressive achievement, which transferred Earhart to the category of legends. And today we will tell you about ten of the most iconic and famous air records throughout the history of aviation.

The history of aviation records is unthinkable without the achievements achieved by the Wright brothers on December 17, 1903. On this day, they made the world's first four flights on the Wright Flyer, each of which was a record in terms of range and duration compared to the previous ones. As a result, we settled on 260 meters and 59 seconds.

On May 20-21, 1927, American pilot Charles Lindbergh made a flight that remains the most famous in the history of world aviation. He took off from New York on a plane with the poetic name “Spirit of St. Louis”, and 33.5 hours later landed at Le Bourget Airport near Paris. This was the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

The next aviation record of this magnitude was set only in 1935 by Amelia Earhart. The brave American, in her Vega 5b aircraft, was the first in the world to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean, starting from Hawaii and landing 18 hours and 16 minutes later in Oakland, California. On July 2, 1937, Earhart died while trying to fly an airplane around the globe.

At that time, the Soviet Union had its own star pilot, very comparable in popularity to the Americans Lindbergh and Earhart. We are talking about Valery Chkalov, who on June 18-20, 1937, as part of the Chkalov-Baidukov-Belyakov crew, made a transcontinental flight from Moscow to the American city of Portland, Vancouver, flying across the Arctic Ocean and North Pole.

On January 16-18, 1957, three American B-52B heavy bombers made the world's first non-stop flight around the world. During the flight, they refueled three times from a refueling aircraft. In 45 hours and 19 minutes, these stratospheric fortresses (as their nickname Stratofortress is translated into Russian) covered a distance of 39,165 kilometers by air.

Sometimes the fact of setting a new record becomes a record in itself. For example, a similar thing happened on March 22, 1989 with an airplane, which during a 3.5-hour flight immediately set 110 new world achievements, such as maximum cargo weight, maximum take-off weight, as well as speed, altitude and flight range records for aircraft similar type.

Bertrand Piccard was born in great family. His grandfather Auguste and father Jacques became famous for their famous submersible dive to the bottom Mariana Trench, many of his relatives are famous conquerors of the air and stratosphere. And Bertrand himself did not make a mistake. In 1999, he and Briton Brian Jones made the first ever flight around the world. hot-air balloon. In 19 days, 21 hours and 47 minutes, they covered a distance of 45,755 kilometers on the Breitling Orbiter 3.

On October 4, 2004, American pilot Brian Binney made the highest flight in aviation history on SpaceShipOne. He raised his aircraft to a height of just over 112 kilometers above the Earth's surface, thereby breaking the boundary between the atmosphere and space.

Longest flight by plane

The time has come for new aviation records. Classic aircraft, of course, continue to develop, but aircraft with alternative energy sources are much more promising and interesting. The first such famous aircraft was the Solar Impulse, on which Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg flew from the west coast of the United States of America to the east, from San Francisco to New York in May-June 2013. In the future, they plan to cross the Atlantic on Solar Impulse, and then travel around the world.
Many people dream of traveling around the world, but few realize how realistic it is to realize this dream. Large airline alliances can help us with this, and not travel agencies, as you might think. Maybe, package tour in dozens of countries around the world would immediately be somewhat convenient, but, firstly, travel agencies have long abandoned the idea of creating such tours due to poor payback and low demand, and secondly, wouldn’t it be nice to plan your own trip around the world? ?

From this article you will learn what round-the-world air tickets are, where and how to buy round-the-world tickets and how much they cost.

What is a “round the world air ticket”

A round-the-world ticket is a ticket that allows you to fly around the world along a pre-planned route. From Russia to Asia, from there to Northern and South America, and then Africa or Europe? Easily! It is enough just to determine all route points (departure and arrival airports) and travel dates on the seller’s website. After this, the company will offer you a “round-the-world ticket”, the price of which will be significantly lower than the cost of individual tickets.

Of course, there are limitations here too. The number of flight miles, the number of flights from one continent to another are usually limited (it won’t be difficult to fly around all the continents, but flying back and forth, for example, from Asia to America will no longer work), as well as the number of flights. Usually the total number of stops is limited to 15-16, which is quite enough for a trip around the world.

There is also a rule that states that your last flight between countries should be made no earlier than 10 days after the start of the trip. So those who are planning to complete the round-the-world trip in week's vacation, must reconsider their plans. But all alliances are not against making changes to the route and dates (of course, within reason) right during your trip. Have you arrived in Cambodia and realized that the planned 5 days will not be enough for you? No problem, the airline will change your booking to a subsequent ticket.

And of course, you shouldn’t forget that you will need the ones you are planning to visit, so you should calculate in advance whether you will have time to get all these visas?

What companies provide this service?

So, our assistants in the implementation of a trip around the world are the three major airline alliances Star Alliance, Sky Team and Oneworld. These three alliances include almost all of the most major airlines world, which allows you, when purchasing a round-the-world ticket, to choose from almost two hundred countries and travel across all continents.

Star Alliance is the largest and oldest airline alliance on the planet. It includes 27 companies, including Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Swiss Air, Thai Airways, United Airlines and others.

Star Alliance offers us to purchase a round-the-world ticket with stops in 193 countries, at 1321 airports. The number of stops is limited to 16 (and at least five). The full list of requirements can be found on the official website of the alliance in the Rond-the-World Fare section, FAQs www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-the-world-fare.

The next largest airline in the alliance is SkyTeam. There are only 20 full members of the alliance, among them: Aeroflot, Air Europa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines and others.

Skyteam is ready to take us to 1052 airports in 177 countries, which is also impressive. At the same time, we can make from 3 to 15 stops, which is only 1 stop less than the previous alliance. Find more detailed information available on the official website of the alliance www.skyteam.com/ru/Flights-and-Destinations/Travel-Passes/Go-Global.

And the last in scale is Oneworld alliance, which consists of 15 participants. These are AirBerlin, American Airlines, Finnair, S7, British Airways, Malaysia Airlines, QatarAirways and others. As you can see, although Oneworld lags behind the previous two alliances in terms of the number of air carriers, it is in no way inferior to them in terms of the importance and quality of service of its airlines. You can read about Oneworld round-the-world tickets on their official website in the Rond-the-World fares section www.oneworld.com/flights/round-the-world-fares/oneworld-explorer.

How to buy a round the world air ticket

You can purchase a round-the-world ticket for your personal route at the alliance offices, by calling the phone number listed on their website, or, which is much easier, on the website itself. For convenience, we give an example of creating a route on the SkyTeam website, where a trip planner is available in Russian. We go to the official website of the alliance www.skyteam.com/ru/. Select Rond the World Planner on the left side of the window.

Click the “Launch application” button, and then “Create a route”.

We get to the application page, where all the rules that your route must follow are immediately listed: direction, transfers, the need to cross the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and so on. We advise you to carefully read these rules to make it easier not only for you to choose countries for travel, but also to facilitate the process of booking a round-the-world ticket.

Let's choose the first planning option, in which we only need to list the cities we want to visit. The planner will automatically create a route in accordance with all the rules of the alliance.

Enter cities in random order into the line on the left or mark them on the map. Click “Create shortest path”. The planner will draw us a path that we will follow.

All we have to do is select flights and confirm the purchase. We enter the flight dates, age and number of passengers, as well as the class we are going to fly in: economy or business. The further process is no different from buying a regular air ticket. We enter passenger data, make payment, and now we are one step closer to the trip of our dreams! And with a round-the-world ticket in your pocket, other difficulties seem easily surmountable.

How much does a round the world air ticket cost?

Let's take for example the route Moscow-Washington-San Francisco-Delhi-Tokyo-London-Prague-Moscow. The Sky Team planner shows us the estimated cost of a round-the-world ticket for one person on this route is 4,343 euros, which is approximately equal to 256,700 rubles. This is a preliminary estimate of the cost of a round-the-world ticket, which may change at the stage of selecting flights.

We will enter the same route into the planner on the Star Alliance website www.staralliance.com/en/fares/round-the-world-fare#. Star Alliance also gives us a preliminary estimate of the cost, but in this case it is 183,500 rubles.

As you can see, the difference is more than significant. It also played a role that in the Star Alliance planner I myself determined the route, but in the Sky Team planner I only marked the cities, allowing the program to do everything for me, which led to a not very rationally constructed path.

In any case, when planning a trip and buying a round-the-world ticket, it is better to spend a little time and consider all three options that airline alliances offer us. Then the route will be the most optimal, and you will choose only those airlines that you like and the price of a round-the-world ticket can be much lower.

The authors of an ambitious Swiss project are going to, no less, transfer the whole world to renewable energy sources. As a detailed illustration of its idea, the company created an airplane that can fly without a single drop of fuel. There have been similar projects before, but none of them could boast of such a well-thought-out system. And never before has a manned vehicle been flown into the air, which is capable of functioning not only during the day, but also at night - and all due to solar panels.

The Solar Impulse project started only thanks to the enduring faith of its creators in miracles - it is simply impossible to explain the successful implementation of the project in any other way. It’s also difficult to call the idea of an airplane that doesn’t use a drop of fuel ambitious. This is closer to science fiction.

However, science fiction, as such, has long and imperceptibly firmly established itself in our everyday life, so it’s time to urgently stop being surprised by the implementation of seemingly completely incredible ideas. Therefore, let's move on to specifics.

Solar Impuls is truly the world's first manned (which is important) aircraft, capable of flying both day and night only due to solar energy. Why is this interesting to anyone other than the project initiators themselves? Well, at least because the very first flight that took place is direct proof of the artificiality of that very “oil needle” on which the entire planet sits.

This winged revolution is made almost entirely of carbon fiber and has the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Moreover, the entire weight of the aircraft is quite comparable to the weight of a small car and is only 1,600 kg.

To achieve such a result, it took seven whole years of hard work, endless calculations, modeling and testing by a group of 80 people, not counting hundreds of external specialists.

Nothing like this has ever been built before. The huge wings of Solar Impuls cover 12,000 solar panels. They power four electric motors powered by renewable energy sources. During the day, solar panels charge lithium batteries to capacity, which allow the aircraft to fly at night.

Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg completed an almost impossible project - at least that’s what prominent aircraft industry experts thought. The partnership turned out to be extremely productive: together the entrepreneurs managed to cover all areas necessary for the development of ideas. Picard, who at one time received a degree as a psychiatrist, managed to interest and attract investors; engineer and entrepreneur Borschberg assembled and subsequently led a group of 80 technical specialists.

Founders

Andre Borschberg

Swiss businessman and pilot, co-founder of Solar Impuls. It was he who sat at the helm of the first plane to make the longest flight without fuel in the history of mankind. Borschberg was the most suitable candidate for the role of pilot of the project: he has more than 20 years of service behind him. Air Force Switzerland. In addition, Andre’s entrepreneurial skills made it possible to bring the project’s, to put it mildly, utopian idea to life. As the company's CEO, he managed to unite more than 70 people into a single mechanism focused only on success - no matter how distant the goal.

Bertrand Picard

Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard has been fascinated by flight since childhood - which, given his family history, is not at all surprising. Both Picard's father and grandfather were famous aeronauts and inventors. Naturally, Bertrand, who grew up in such an atmosphere, simply could not help but follow their path. He is the main dreamer of Solar Impuls, firmly convinced that the most important thing for any business is to sincerely believe in the reality of its implementation.

First flight

No instinct or premonition can justify such a risky project in the eyes of investors. Another thing is practical testing. Solar Impulse 1, the world's first solar-powered manned aircraft that can operate at night, has taken off and crossed two continents.

The project participants made this recording based on the results of the first flight. Among other things, here they meet with one of the investors who supported the project - Richard Branson from Virgin Galactic.

After this, even complete skeptics stopped doubting the advisability of investments: the pair of innovators Picard-Borschberg demonstrated the accessibility of using clean technologies and renewable energy sources.

During its first flight, Solar Impulse 1 set as many as 8 world records. But both Picard and Borschberg were not going to stop there: the entrepreneurs’ plans included the idea of launching a second version of the device into the air.

Solar Impulse 2 received almost unlimited autonomy. Flying around globe- without a drop of fuel and without landings. Here, technicians will have to take into account another important factor: the comfort of the pilot, who will have to make this, without exaggeration, legendary flight alone.

Footage of one of the first test flights of Solar Impuls 2, filmed using GoPro.

5 days and nights, over the oceans, from continent to continent. A week of life in a 3.8 m3 cabin, every detail of which is tailored to the needs of the pilot.

A small sketch depicting both the project participants and the flight itself.

Dassault Systems

To develop the second version of Solar Impulse, engineers used technologies from Dassault Systèmes. Testing all new developments on a live prototype would mean wasting years and years of unnecessary work. This problem was completely solved by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which allowed technicians to carry out all the necessary calculations.

CATIA and ENOVIA applications, from the world leader in 3D design solutions, helped accurately design both the aircraft's appearance and technically critical controls.

Technical characteristics of Solar Impulse 2

Flight altitude 8500 m

Nominal weight 2300 kg

Cruising speed 70 km/h

Wing span 72 meters

Powerplant: four 7.35 kW engines, Li-Po batteries.

Four screws, diameter 3.5 meters

Weight 400 kg.

Solar Impulse 2 trip around the world

Now the time has come for the second record flight on the second model of Solar Impulse 2. It began on March 9, 2015 from Abu Dhabi. It is expected that in five months the aircraft will cover 35 thousand kilometers.

Borschberg himself will be at the controls during the record-breaking flight. He will be replaced by a co-pilot, Swiss Bertrand Picard.

The route will run from Abu Dhabi to Oman, and from there to India and China. The flight will then continue across the Pacific Ocean, the USA and European countries. The device will not enter Russian space; 12 landings will be made along the route.

The first aircraft in the series, Solar Impulse, was presented to the public in 2009. The first project had the goal of using exclusively solar energy for flight. Theoretically, the plane can remain in the air around the clock, since excess solar energy received during the day is stored in a system of capacitors that can be used when flying at night.

Solar Impulse 2 (Solar Impulse 2) - an improved version of the first sample. Its presentation took place exactly a year ago - March 9, 2014. During this time, the aircraft passed tests. The plane is equipped with 17 thousand solar batteries, which power four electric motors. When fully charged, the speed can reach up to 140 kilometers per hour. Electric capacitors can keep the device at an altitude of 8500 meters all night.

Successful completion of a trip around the world

On July 26, 2016, at 5 a.m., the solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse 2 completed its trip around the world. The last flight took place from Cairo to Abu Dhabi, from where the plane began its journey on March 9, 2015. During the flight, Solar Impulse set 19 world records, and its solar panels generated 11,000 kWh of electricity.

Solar Impulse 2 completed 17 flights total length 42,000 km. The plane flew over three seas and two oceans. The project cost about 115 million euros. The average speed of the plane was about 70 kilometers per hour. It was equipped with more than 17 thousand solar panels, which were built into wings with a span greater than that of a Boeing 747. At night, the aircraft was powered by lithium-ion charging cells.

“My team and I wanted to show that clean technologies today demonstrate incredible opportunities. Now you can fly without fuel longer than with fuel, and fly with the help of the forces of nature, fly with the sun. This new era for energy, and that’s what we really want to inspire people to do,” said Bertrand Piccard.

100 great records of aviation and astronautics Zigunenko Stanislav Nikolaevich

Flights around the world

The idea of ultra-long-distance non-stop flights, as mentioned above, originated back in the 30s of the 20th century. Our famous pilot V.P. Chkalov even dreamed of “flying around the ball” - that is, flying around the globe without landing.

It turns out that these were not just dreams. Pilots M.M. Gromov and G.F. Baidukov, designers A.N. Tupolev, A.D. Charomsky, A.S. Moskalev and others became participants in one of the most daring projects of that time. Not many people now know that in 1936–1941, with their active participation, an ultra-long flight of the ANT-25 aircraft was prepared along the 56th parallel (latitude of Moscow) with a length of 22,500 km.

The ANT-25 was to be equipped with a 2000-horsepower AN-1 diesel engine, developed at the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Engineering. In terms of efficiency, it had no equal: specific fuel consumption was half that of the then and current gasoline carburetor engines - 0.140–0.145 kg/l. With. hour versus 0.24–0.28 kg/l. With. hour. And since diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline, the gains were even greater.

But the war prevented this expedition from being carried out.

However, abroad they managed to implement something in this direction even before the war. So, back in 1924, from April 4 to September 28, the first round-the-world flight was made on two Douglas DWC aircraft. True, at first 4 planes took off from Seattle (Washington State). But two of them dropped out of the race along the way due to technical problems.

And only aircraft No. 2 Chicago and aircraft No. 4 New Orleans reached the finish line, piloted respectively by the crews of Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold, as well as Eric Nelson and John Harding Jr.

In 175 days, the planes covered a distance of 44,340 km. At the same time, the net flight time was 371 hours 11 minutes.

Then all the male pilots were replaced by a woman. The Englishwoman V. Bruce, on the Blackburn Bluebird IV, made the first flight around the world in a light aircraft from September 25, 1930 to February 20, 1931. Of course, during the flight the pilot made many stopovers: in Istanbul, Baghdad, Karachi, Rangoon, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seattle, Vancouver, New York, Plymouth, Le Bourget and Croydon, but still completed the journey she had begun. to end.

By the way, relatively recently, American pilot Jerry Mock made a similar flight. In March - April 1964, she circled the globe in 29 days on a Cessna 180 Spirit of Columbus light aircraft, ending her flight with a landing at the airfield in Columbus (Ohio).

But the men were already following Bruce. First, a record round-the-world flight lasting 8 days 15 hours 51 minutes was made from June 23 to July 1, 1931 by pilot Willie Post and his navigator Harold Gatti on a Lockheed Vega (Winnie May) aircraft.

And only after this, Willie Post, on a Lockheed Vega Monoplane, which he named “Winnie May,” made a male solo flight around the world on July 15–22, 1933. Taking off from Floyd Bennett Field in New York, he flew a distance of 25,099 km in 7 days 18 hours 49 minutes.

Then Elgen Long, in a twin-engine Piper Navajo airplane, made the first round-the-world flight through the Earth's poles. Between November 5 and December 3, 1971, it covered a total distance of 62,597 kilometers in 215 flight hours. Moreover, when flying over Antarctica, the temperature in the aircraft cabin dropped to -40 °C.

In July 1978, the first flight around the world in two light aircraft was made by Frank Hale Jr. with co-pilot Walter J. Hedren and William G. Wisner with co-pilot Bruce C. Wisner in Beach Bonanzas. The US National Aeronautics Association officially registered this achievement and issued a certificate to the pilots certifying that the aircraft covered a distance of 38,380 kilometers in 159.91 hours of pure flight time.

The first round-the-world flight in a single-engine aircraft through the Earth's poles was made in 1987 by Richard Norton and Kalin Rossetti. Having taken off on a Piper RA-46-ZYUR Malibu plane on January 21 from Le Bourget, the pilots completed the flight there on June 15, covering a distance of 55,268 kilometers in 185 hours 41 minutes of flight time.

But the first aircraft to make a “clean” non-stop flight around the world without refueling was the Voyager from Voyager Aircraft Inc. It was a trimaran-monoplane with a high relative aspect ratio of the wing, built from composite materials according to the design of Bart Rutan. Launching on December 14, 1986 from Edwards Air Force Base, Voyager, piloted by Bart's brother Dick Rutan and his partner Gina Yager, returned there 9 days 3 minutes 44 seconds later. Thus, absolute world records for flight range along a straight line and along a circular route were immediately set, equal to 40,212.139 km.

By the way, in the same 1986, in 33 hours, the Concorde plane also flew around the globe, taking off and then landing in Lisbon. The interesting thing is that during the flight he constantly overtook the night and flew only in daylight. It's been such a long day.

Nowadays, the Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner, which was presented to the public on February 15, 2005, is claiming the role of the longest-range airliner. According to the press release, it is capable of carrying 301 passengers over a maximum distance of 17,446 km. That is, in fact, the Boeing 777-200LR Worldliner is capable of connecting any two cities on the planet, eliminating the need for transfers.

Finally, in March 2007, the famous American businessman and traveler Steve Fossett is known to have set a new record. Previously, he flew around the globe alone in a hot air balloon, and now he did the same on an airplane.

First, he traveled around the world on a yacht. Then in 2002, after a number of unsuccessful Attempts, he entered the Guinness Book of Records by flying around the globe alone in 14 days in a balloon. And finally, I decided to make the same trip by plane.

First, he tried to buy and convert a decommissioned Concorde supersonic passenger plane for this purpose. However, the deal did not take place. Some say this happened because the sellers asked too much for the old plane. Others say that, after reflection, Fossett refused to buy it himself - it is difficult to pilot such a colossus alone; and this aircraft giant is painfully gluttonous.

And then he went the beaten path - he turned to the designer of the record Voyager aircraft, Bart Rutan, asking him to remake Voyager for a solo flight. After some thought, Bart Rutan abandoned the idea of alteration, citing the fact that it would be impossible for one person to withstand more than a week's flight. And he proposed to create a new, faster aircraft that could make a similar flight 2-3 times faster.

Assembly of the aircraft began in September 2002. At the same time, the only metal structures on the plane (not counting the electronics and engine) were the aluminum landing gear and engine mount.

Everything else was made of carbon fiber and other composites. As a result, 83% of the weight was fuel. (By the way, Voyager had a fuel weight component of 72%.)

While flight tests of the aircraft were underway, Steve Fossett himself was preparing for the flight. Firstly, despite his 60 years, he ran up to 8 miles every morning to maintain his physical fitness, and also regularly improved his flying skills. Secondly, at his request, nutritionists developed a special menu for the flight, which consisted mainly of a chocolate-protein fortified cocktail, the dry mixture of which had to be diluted with milk during the flight. A dry closet the size of a desk drawer was placed in the cockpit, and the pilot's seat itself was folded out so that the pilot could control the flight while lying down most of the way. Of course, the autopilot was not forgotten either, which could independently guide the plane, requesting its coordinates from the GPS system and adjusting the route in such a way that tailwinds made it possible to increase the flight speed by 90–180 or more kilometers per hour.

And so on March 3, 2005, Steve Fossett carefully accelerated the “flying tank” along the 5-kilometer runway of the Salina airfield in California and lifted the overloaded car into the air. The most dangerous phase of the flight was overcome.

Then it was easier. Although it was not without its troubles. Either the navigation system malfunctioned, or the fuel consumption turned out to be more than calculated (1180 kg inexplicably disappeared somewhere - perhaps they evaporated through microcracks in the tank) ... So last 24 hours the pilot did not sleep at all, was worried and worried. They say that he even took special medications to keep his body in good shape. But on the last liters of fuel, he still reached the same runway where he started, ending his flight 67 hours and 2 minutes after the start.

In the future, the same Fossett intended to try to fly around the world in a glider, completely without fuel. However, his premature death during preparations for the next expedition in early 2008 put an end to this project.

However, Fossett was not alone in his desire. There is also an idea to lay out the flight route strictly along the equator or, conversely, along the meridian through both poles. Finally, there is a proposal from our designer and athlete V. Belokon to organize round-the-world races on aircraft of this type, just as cruising yachts now sail around the globe. Fortunately, there are already projects.

“Several years ago we were offered to create a better machine than Rutanov’s,” said E. G. Komelev, design engineer at the Myasishchev Electromechanical Plant. “Our aircraft should make such flights not a feat, but an everyday occurrence.”

According to the EMZ project, the aircraft must have a two-boom design (it has already been tested during the creation of high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft M-17 and M-55) and have the following characteristics: wingspan - 31.88 m; fuselage length -9.5 m; weight - 5300 kg, and about 4 thousand kg of this will be fuel.

Will it be better than Rutanov's? It's not easy to answer. Our designers do not yet have sufficient application experience the latest materials. And whether such an aircraft will be able to cover the planned route Moscow - Odessa - Bosphorus - Gibraltar - Panama - Indonesia - Red Sea - Iran - Caspian Sea - Moscow without landing, with a total length of 40,500 km in 7 days, only time will tell.

But in general, as you can see, humanity does not intend to rest on its laurels.

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Travel around the world In 1803–1806, the first Russian round the world expedition, which was led by the navigator, admiral, honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern. During his stay in China, Krusenstern became interested in

A solo, non-stop flight around the world without refueling is perhaps the last great record that can be achieved in aviation. To achieve this goal, Burt Rutan, a famous aerospace designer, turned for help to his main support - the guys from Hangar 63

David Noland

Ready to fly. Global Flayer on the airfield site in front of a hangar in the Mojave Desert

John Karkov pilots the aircraft on a test flight

Cables and levers for aircraft control

The aircraft configuration is optimal for long flights with tailwinds

There are no dial gauges in the cockpit - only a computer screen

75 miles north of Los Angeles, behind the San Gabriel Mountains, you can find a veritable sanctuary for exotic aircraft. A sleepy Mojave town, standing at the crossroads of two roads, deserted surrounding wastelands, 360 absolutely cloudless days a year - where you will find the best place to fly around some experimental aircraft? It is there that the Edwards Air Force Base is located, where the glorious test guys glorified in the film “The Right Ones” served.

The airport in the town of Mojave, like the smaller civilian brother of the military airfield in Edwards, is home to a stunning collection of the most fantastic aircraft. Here you can see a remote-controlled Phantom F-4 taxiing to the runway for another test flight, a bright red MiG-21 hidden behind hangars, hundreds of airliners laid up far from the runways, but most importantly, the most risky aviation projects are started here . Let's take a look at Scaled Composites, the legendary brainchild of aerospace designer Burt Rutan. More of the coolest airplanes were born here than anywhere else in the world. The phrase itself (translated as “Large-scale composites”) is reminiscent of an original technique widely used in Rutan’s company (original - until it was replicated throughout the world). When fulfilling orders for large aerospace companies, Rutan preferred, for the sake of economy, to produce the first flying prototypes on a reduced scale, and it was more convenient to make them exclusively from composite materials.

Scaled, as the company is commonly known here, is housed in several corrugated iron workshop hangars. One October morning, when it was raining contrary to usual, through the open gates of Hangar 63 we saw the outline of an exotic, but at the same time graceful, three-fuselage single jet plane with a wingspan like a decent airliner. It was Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, created by a small team of independent freethinking engineers who couldn't—or wouldn't—fit into the bureaucracies of leading aerospace companies. Glowing with milky white paint, the plane was frightening with its almost porcelain fragility.

In less than 3 months, the GlobalFlyer, carrying on board five times its own weight in fuel, will barely move and begin to accelerate along the 5-kilometer runway of the airfield in Salina, Kansas. In a minute and a half, when the plane roars along the ground for more than three kilometers and reaches a speed of 230 km/h, its pilot, Steve Fossett, gently pulls the tiny control stick.

The GlobalFlyer will reluctantly leave the ground and begin its leisurely climb. Adhering to generally accepted aviation corridors and taking advantage of winter tailwinds, Flyer will cross the Atlantic, fly over England, Italy, and the Middle East. Only 19 hours after takeoff, being already above Saudi Arabia, it will reach its cruising altitude of 15 km. Next, maintaining air speeds from 400 to 500 km/h, the pilot will head to Southeast Asia, Japan, cross northern part Pacific Ocean and will fly over west coast USA. After 64 hours of flight and 37,000 km, the pilot should land in Kansas, and the latest landmark aviation achievement will be recorded

into the record books. The first round-the-world non-stop solo flight will be completed. "It's probably the most important thing left to do in aviation," says Fossett, a successful 60-year-old businessman from Chicago. In his second, non-commercial life, he made a distinguished career setting speed and distance records in gondolas balloons, in the cockpits of gliders and ocean sailing ships.

Lindbergh, Eager, Glenn...

America seems to like it when its idols perform alone. Lindbergh was not the first person to fly non-stop from New York to Paris. He became a national legend thanks to his desperate determination to repeat this flight alone and in a single-engine aircraft.

One cool evening in 1999, gentlemen relaxing at the Flying M Ranch, a huge patch of desert with private runway— we talked about this topic. Baron Hilton, tycoon hotel business and a selfless aviation enthusiast, gathered a dozen guests—pilots like himself—to his Nevada estate for a week of hunting, fishing and, of course, flying. In a conversation between Fossett and Dick Rutan, the question came up about what other records remained in aviation for the future. Rutan noted that a non-stop flight around the world had already been completed.

In 1986, Rutan and co-pilot Gina Eager (not to be confused with Chuck Eager) flew around the globe in the Voyager, a high-aspect ratio prop plane designed by Rutan's younger brother Bert. For nine days and nights, Rutan and Eager battled turbulence, thunderstorms, fatigue and fuel system, but still successfully reached the finish line. This heroic flight brought the pilots a medal personally from President Reagan, and their plane a place of honor in the Smithsonian Museum, a hundred meters from Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis.

Rutan vividly remembers telling Fossett, “Steve, you're capable of more—you could do this on your own.” Around the whole world. Without a single landing. And without an assistant. This may be the greatest solo flight since Lindbergh. Rutan immediately hinted that he had someone in mind who would design and build a plane to match these ambitious plans - of course, it should be his brother Bert, the future winner of the Ansari X Prize competition to create the first suborbital private spacecraft.

Soon, Fossett and Burt Rutan signed a contract to develop GlobalFlyer (later another prominent entrepreneur in the aviation business, Sir Richard Branson, joined the conspirators). Rutan, the godfather of the whole idea, put forward an ingenious project for a two-tailed aircraft, which in their narrow circle received the nickname Capricorn - “Capricorn”, but since he could not tear himself away from the nascent SpaceShipOne project for long, he handed over the development of all the details to his team of geniuses - the guys from hangar 63.

The leader of this whole gang - a thin, serious, quiet 43-year-old John Karkov - at first glance does not fit the role of boss in such an extravagant enterprise. When it comes to modes of transportation, he is a retrograde, as evidenced by his 1989 Saab 900 and 25-year-old steel-frame bicycle. However, aviation is in his blood, literally at the genetic level. As a boy, he mowed lawns to earn money for school lessons. flight school, later, in his parents’ garage, he began building his own plane named Quickie (“Smart”) - we note that it was also based on Rutan’s design. After receiving an aeronautical engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, he joined Scaled in 1986. “Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to do everything here,” says the boss, “and in this project I had to stick my nose into every crevice.”

In Hangar 63, under Karkov's command were Joe Ruddy (general structure), Chuck Coleman (fuel supply and control system), Bob Morgan (landing mechanisms), Richard Hodgson (workshop manager), Sean Keller (electrician), Clint Nichols (propulsion and flight tests), and with them another twenty people. Having eaten a pound of salt together, they firmly grasped the company catechism: the apparatus should be light and simple, you need to work quickly, you need to accept responsibility without fear and learn from mistakes. The guys from hangar 63 say it this way: “Turn the nuts quickly, but so that they don’t fall off.”

The inspiration of the entire team, their engineering muse, can be called the French aviator of the early twentieth century, Louis Charles Breguet, who formulated one of the fundamental laws of aviation science. Breguet's range formula shows: the distance that an aircraft can fly is determined by three factors - engine efficiency, aerodynamic quality of the airframe and the relative weight of the fuel (that is, the ratio of the weight of the fuel taken on board to the total take-off weight of the aircraft). Claiming a flight range twice as long as previous records (not counting the Voyager flight), our team launched an attack on Breguet's law on all three fronts at once.

The design of any aircraft begins with the engine, and Karkov has already had his eye on the long-loved Garrett F109. This tiny turbofan engine was developed in the mid-80s to training aircraft Air Force T-46A, which - alas! — never went into series. “It seems that this is the most suitable toy for our business,” recalls Karkov, “there simply wasn’t a better one among small jet engines.” Unfortunately, only a few of these units were produced, and not a single one remains. Therefore, we returned to the option that Rutan used in two of his previous projects - this was the Williams FJ44, also a turbofan, mass-produced for small business class aircraft. The FJ44 had almost twice the thrust of the F109, but weighed 40 kilograms more and, worst of all, was inferior in fuel efficiency by as much as 20%. Recalling the first disappointments, Karkov says: “There were days when we doubted whether it was even possible to build our aircraft based on this engine.” So, on the first front the campaign almost failed. All that remained was to try to take revenge on the other two.

Second front

Attacking Breguet's range formula on a second front is a pleasure. What engineer doesn’t enjoy licking the wings, tail and fuselage until the highest aerodynamic quality is sculpted, that is, the L/D coefficient - the ratio of lift to aerodynamic drag. If you look at Rutan’s draft design, it, with a fantastic, almost 40-meter wingspan, promised brilliant aerodynamics. However, in aircraft design, as in architecture, God is in the details. Karkov took charge of the fuselage design and tail design, and entrusted the critical task of sculpting the subtle nuances of the wing to John Ronch, a genius aerodynamicist and virtuoso programmer who works alone in Elkhart, Indiana. Since 1982, Ronch has collaborated with Rutan more than once, in particular, it was he who calculated the wing and propeller profiles for Voyager.

In May 2002, Scales sent a package of draft design documentation for GlobalFlyer to Ronch, and along with the project, Mark Mangelsdorf, who already had experience working with Ronch. This couple barricaded themselves in Ronch's office, furnished with seven computers, which he usually used to calculate his aerodynamic problems. “From the very first attempt, our analysis of the aircraft’s behavior showed that the device, corresponding to the received drawings, was not capable of performing the task assigned to it,” Ronch himself recalls. However, he had already encountered similar problems and, remembering his own experience in designing sports gliders and stratospheric unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, wrote a fantastic program that analyzes continuously changing parameters round the world flight, including weight, speed, altitude, traction, fuel consumption, etc. - 11 factors in total. “The result was a giant matrix,” says Ronch. “We cannot calculate the size of an airplane until we know its behavior in the air, but we cannot know its behavior until we know its size.” It turns out something like chasing your own tail. In the end, you just have to try to guess, and then adjust all the remaining parameters.”

Sitting 12 hours a day in front of monitors, Ronch and Mangelsdorf spent three months trying out different sizes and shapes of wings. When the final parameters were drawn, the newly polished GlobalFlyer brilliantly defeated the second term of the Breguet formula. If you believe Ronch's calculations, the aerodynamic quality of this aircraft reached a value of 37, surpassing even the parameters of the Voyager, which, despite its brilliant aerodynamics, had a quality of only 27. According to calculations, if the aircraft is flown absolutely without error, then at the end of the flight the fuel reserve should correspond to an extra 5000 km.

Final chord

The last term in Breguet's range formula is the relative weight of the fuel. It is normal for airliners to take on board a fuel supply equal to 25-45% of the total take-off weight. Voyager went around the world using 72% of its weight as fuel, the highest ever. The power-hungry engine of the new aircraft puts forward even more stringent demands, and this parameter should soar to an unimaginable 83%. The path to this elusive goal lay through mercilessly cutting excess weight wherever possible.

Weight is the enemy of any aircraft designer, but during the construction of the GlobalFlyer, weight restrictions became simply nightmarish. To lift every kilogram of this aircraft into the air and carry it around the world, you need to load 5 kg of fuel into it. Rutan likes to tell his engineers and craftsmen that every part, after it is designed and manufactured, must pass a final weight test. To do this you need to throw it up. If it falls, it means it was too heavy. And in these words there is just a grain of joke. The Flyer had to have a larger wingspan than the Boeing 737, and the weight had to be driven into a completely absurd range - 1600 kg (without fuel). A simple Ford Explorer weighs that much, and as for the Boeing 737, it’s only 4% of its weight.

For the manufacture of the aircraft's supporting structure, a composite based on carbon fiber and epoxy resin was chosen with a specific strength 7 times higher than that of aluminum. For commercial aviation, the use of carbon fiber composites is at the forefront of technological developments, but for Scaled it is a familiar work that they have been doing for 20 years. The main wing spar, weighing 260 kg, is made up of 17,575 strands of carbon fiber, each as thick as a matchstick.

Another secret that allows you to radically save weight is strength calculations carried out at the very edge of acceptable safety. Only one thing is required from each part - that it fulfill its purpose. Just once. Ruddy, the team's head of structural engineering, says: "The challenge is to see how much you can scare yourself while still being within acceptable safety limits." When building small private aircraft, it is customary to include a safety margin up to an overload of 5.7 g. When fully loaded at takeoff, the Flyer's safety margin will barely reach 3 g. This means that if there is any serious turbulence, the wings can break. In the first few hours after takeoff, the life of pilot Fossett will hang by a thin thread, whose strength - that is, the strength of the entire structure - is deliberately limited by stringent weight requirements.

Ruddy attacked the aircraft structure like a butcher, cutting off everything that came under the knife. For the ailerons, he used two layers of carbon fiber instead of the conventional four. The usual stiffeners were replaced with tiny foam inserts. The lower surfaces, not exposed to the sun, were left bare - just to save on paint weight. The results were stunning. Each of the meter-long Flyer ailerons weighed in at a meagerly measured 230 g. As Coleman recalls, “even around the workshop they had to be carried with great care—any draft could tear them out of your hands.”

In the Scaled workshops, the first weighing of a new aircraft is a particularly special event. People gather at the scales, and those who are especially adventurous place bets. Typically, an aircraft built in the Scaled workshops exceeds the weight calculated according to the project by about 7%. This is an extremely low figure for the aviation industry. At that time, Karkov was so worried that he kept the preliminary measurements secret from everyone.

The team, crackling winches, rolled the plane onto three strain gauge platforms. The numbers on the display flashed as if in slot machine. When all four wheels left the floor, the scale blinked and stopped. 1500 kg - 110 kg less than according to the project. “We couldn’t believe our own eyes,” recalls Karkov, grinning smugly, “we looked at each other and repeated: ‘It can’t be! We must have forgotten to screw something in!” But everything was fine. The third part of Breguet's range formula has been defeated

and rolled in the dust.

November 2004

By the end of November 2004, Flyer had already made 21 flights, climbed to an altitude of 15 km and reached a speed of 560 km/h. The maximum take-off weight was 8.5 tons, 86% of the full fuel load. The team grew confident that if the pilot made no mistakes, the Flyer would fly around the world, even retaining some reserve fuel. Rutan stated bluntly: “This is a really good plane.”

Karkov, now acting as a test pilot for his brainchild, confirms that the device behaves very well in the air. “Due to its unusually long wings, it turns somewhat sluggishly, but overall it handles like a normal airplane.” This is good news for Fossett. Although there is no denying his high qualifications and decent flying experience (2800 hours on jet aircraft alone), he has no claim to the laurels of a test pilot. By Thanksgiving, Fossett had already completed 4 flights with a maximum weight of 4.5 tons.

We must not forget that in reality there are two different aircraft— Flyer is light and Flyer is heavy. A lightweight Flyer can surprise with its excellent aerobatic qualities, but as it is refueled, when the weight reaches the maximum 10 tons, its rate of climb drops, the aircraft “sags” relative to the wingtips by almost 3 m and becomes even more clumsy. How the Heavy Flyer will behave on its first (and only) flight with a full load, Fossett will find out a few seconds after lifting off the ground. “The danger is great,” he agrees. But the only conclusion is that everything needs to be done properly.”

The main thing is to get off the ground and begin a three-day flight around the world, then the GlobalFlyer, serenely purring, will independently steer its course, obeying the autopilot. Fossett will only have to chill out, reclining in a booth the size of a telephone booth. Internal pressure will be maintained at a level corresponding to a three-kilometer altitude. To calm your nerves, there is a neatly packed parachute nearby. Fossett will be able to admire the surrounding world through two small side windows. (Fossett will only have to stand up a little and look ahead through the tiny overhead canopy of the cockpit twice - during takeoff and landing.) Otherwise, he will have to while away the time, adjusting the engine power level, monitoring the autopilot and talking with ground controllers. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, drink milkshakes and urinate into a urinal tube. Sleep? As Fossett says, “somewhere between just a little and not at all.”

Overcoming long-term stress is a task that Fossett can handle. No wonder he spent thousands of hours in cramped balloon gondolas and rocking yacht cockpits. Let's remember his purely sporting achievements - swimming across the English Channel, participating in the Iditarod sled dog race and much more - his manic persistence is felt in all of this. In comparison with these feats, sitting in the cockpit for three days and the last event will seem like just a forced vacation.

If Fossett's trip around the world ends in success, neither he nor Rutan will hide from the rays of glory. But the good guys from Hangar 63 will remain among the unsung heroes, although it was they who, with their imagination, ingenuity and hard work, made it so that a dangerous enterprise on a grand scale could look like a carefree stroll in the eyes of the uninitiated.

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