The Kansas City Star

SALINA, Kan. – Steve Fossett had just endured 67 hours in a cramped cockpit, with only milkshakes for sustenance, not knowing for half the way whether he had enough fuel to get home.

But when he emerged from the cockpit of his GlobalFlyer at 2 p.m. CST, having become the first to fly a plane solo around the world without refueling, one might have thought he was returning from an afternoon jaunt.

The burly 60-year-old, dressed in a silvery flight suit, popped out his head, acknowledged the crowd gathered at Salina Municipal Airport with a wave and walked steadily into the arms of his wife, Peggy Fossett. Then, in a most understated way, he told the crowd: “I’m a really lucky guy. I got to achieve my ambition.”

Fossett seemed to take his latest adventure in stride, but city leaders and aviation authorities called it a very big deal.

“This is a monumental achievement in aviation,” said David Hawksett of London, who assesses scientific achievements for Guinness World Records. In terms of significant firsts, he said, Fossett’s feat is on par with the 1969 moon landing and the 1953 climb up Mount Everest.

“This kind of thing makes people sit up and say, “Wow, look what can be done!”‘

More important, Hawksett said, it “inspires kids all over the world.”

Clif Berry Jr., who wrote 2002’s “Milestones of the First Century of Flight,” said Fossett’s accomplishment was “an incredible feat.”

“Just imagine, there you are all alone at 45,000 feet, with no chance to refuel. It’s just marvelous,” Berry said

“I do hope it inspires the young and old to have their own challenges and go after them.”

Sylvia Rice, vice president of the Salina Chamber of Commerce, said Fossett’s achievement put her city on the map. It is a significant addition to the city’s already rich aviation history, she said.

“Everyone was so excited to see that plane come in,” Rice said. “You could feel the adrenaline and emotion, and people were crying, and it was wonderful.”

Mission control directors estimated the crowd in the thousands. People were strung out in groups along the 2.5-mile runway.

Shortly before the 1:47 p.m. CST touchdown, the mission’s project director told media gathered on the south side of the runway that Fossett would not do a flyover because turbulence had made the plane difficult to handle.

“The aircraft is so light now that he is not going to take the risk,” director Paul Moore said. “The main thing is that he cruises down safely.”

The landing looked perfect.

Jon Karkow, chief engineer for Scaled Composites, the company that designed and built the plane, said Fossett did an excellent job of bringing the plane down. It had about 1,100 pounds of fuel left, enough to fly about another 10 hours.

The GlobalFlyer was leaking a little hydraulic fluid, Karkow said, and had a few bugs on it. Other than that, it appeared to be in perfect shape, he said.

The mission was sponsored by Virgin Atlantic, a British airline founded by Richard Branson. Branson greeted Fossett on Thursday with a hug and a bottle of champagne, which Branson began spraying on Fossett. Fossett grabbed the bottle, sprayed his friend back and took a chug.

Fossett holds world records in five sports, including ballooning and sailing. Branson has been his partner in some of them.

In an interview with reporters near the GlobalFlyer, Fossett said that the fuel situation had concerned him, that but he had run into similar problems before.

He said he liked “things that are difficult to do” and loved technology projects.

“I would do these things if no one were paying attention,” he said.

When asked what kind of contribution his feat had made to mankind, he said he wasn’t sure it had made any.

“I know Richard Branson doesn’t agree with me. He thinks there’s an important technological contribution in this,” Fossett said. “I think it’s more in the lifestyle itself. I like going out and doing things that are interesting to me, and I think other people should do what is interesting to them.”

The Global Flyer left Salina at 6:47 p.m. CST Monday. It weighed 4,000 pounds and carried 18,100 pounds of fuel. On Wednesday morning, Mission Control directors announced that 2,600 pounds of fuel had mysteriously disappeared. They said the fuel shortage put the world record in jeopardy.

By Wednesday evening, however, the directors were more optimistic. And, as it turned out, the GlobalFlyer appears to have had fuel to spare.

When asked Thursday morning whether the fuel situation had been overplayed to gain publicity, Branson said the concern was real.

“Incredibly, the thing is, in life truth is often stranger than fiction,” he said.

NASA astronaut Ken Cockrell of Houston, whose last space mission was in 2002, was intrigued enough by the mission to spend the week in Salina. He was enthusiastic about it to the end.

“In every human heart there is a desire to explore,” Cockrell said, as he waited on the runway Thursday for Fossett to touch down.

“Some people like to explore things in a very small niche of their environment. Others, like Steve, want to explore things no one else has ever done.”