Fuel leak delays Fossett's world record attempt
08.02.06
A fuel leak on his experimental airplane forced millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett to delay by at least a day the start of an 80-hour flight that he hopes will set a nonstop distance record.
Liftoff of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, which has a wingspan as wide as an 11-story building is tall, had been scheduled for shortly after dawn from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
But minutes before the planned liftoff, Fossett was still huddled with his team on the rented runway used by NASA's space shuttles. A few minutes later, Fossett, 61, called off the flight.
The fuel leak was repaired later and Fossett planned to try another takeoff at dawn today, or may wait for conditions in the jet stream to be more favourable on Thursday.
Fossett is out to break the 26,366-mile (42,431-km) nonstop distance record set in 1986 by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in a nine-day trip in a journey that will end at Kent airport.
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