This is pretty impressive:
Steve Fossett’s audacious attempt to fly an airplane around the world alone, without stops or refueling, ended successfully today at the former Air Force base in Kansas where it began, as his GlobalFlyer, its 13 fuel tanks nearly empty, touched down safely in Salina some 67 hours after it left.
The sleek plane, designed especially for the flight and partly bankrolled by Sir Richard Branson of VirginAtlantic Airlines, touched down shortly before 2 p.m. Central time under clear skies that had helped warm the weather to an unseasonable 69 degrees. Mr. Fossett was greeted by a throng of journalists and well-wishers, including Sir Richard, who performed a celebratory champagne dousing.
Wow.
Mikey
Fantastic!
Bob
Rich guy, big ego. Hip hip hooray.
triticale
There, there, Bob. Maybe someday you’ll accomplish something notable.
Bob
In a hundred years everyone who knew us and loved us as a person will be dead. We are here on earth now. What have you done in your time here, trit?
Albert Camus
Craptacular
AF vet in Omaha
We might ask you the same thing, Boob…since you’re the one pissing all over someone else’s accomplishment, which will very likely be in the history books 100 years from now.
Dumbass.
Mikey
Must be fun to be Bob. The glass is not only half empty, but it’s also dirty and cracked. The human spirit and its triumphs mean nothing to him. Lindbergh was a fool, the Wright Brothers demented, and Fossett another rich jackass.
Bob, I think you really need a fifth of whiskey, a .357 with one bullet, and a little alone time.
[Just kidding about the one bullet – best to fill every chamber. I’m not kidding about the whiskey or the alone time, though.]
Bob
Please, please, please, everyone. A simple act of kindness, helping a neighbor with something, letting someone in front of you in traffic, is a more positive act than setting a meaningless record of flying around the world.
What was the point of him flying around the world? To set a record. There isn’t even any scientific discovery, no wall of human prejudice or fear to be knocked down (like Nazi bootlick Lindbergh’s flying across the Atlantic). Columbus, Magellan et al were at least looking for lands to exploit in order to accrue wealth. Fossett doesn’t even do that. No one is going to begin Kansas to Kansas flights based on his “record.” His “record” is equivalent to buying an F-150 for a commute to your office: a waste of fuel to boost an ego that needs boosting.
CadillaqJaq
As usual, “Mr. Negativity” is pissing all over himself again. Lindburgh, Earhart and a few others since have set worthless aviation records… records are made to be broken, regardless of their benefit to mankind.
I think it’s great that Fossett made it all the way non-stop, especially after having about 2,000 pounds of fuel “disappear’ during the flight. And what about the composite material the plane was constructed with? Certainly some manufacturers will look at that further. Bully for Fossett.
GrantR
Bob, if you read the news stories about it, and look at the pictures, you see young and old gathered in awe to watch the plane arrive safely from its trip. Just because it didn’t enrich or inspire your life, doesn’t mean that others didn’t appreciate it. Don’t be such a philistine, man.
Life would be a lot less interesting were there not records to break, and people willing to break them.
Bob
Okay, I’m game. The guy flew around the world. All by his lonesome. Sure was swell. He’s a great man because he showed that if you have enough money and enough desire you can build a plane that you can fly around the world by yourself without landing to sleep or refuel.
The function of Lindbergh was to prove trans-Atlantic air travel was possible. Sure, Lindbergh also had id control problems and loved the Nazis (funny how regressed, infantile personalities are attracted to such philosophical trappings), but there was a point there in establishing the possibility of flying across the Atlantic.
Can we expect, from Fossett’s flight, that people will begin flying around the world by themselves for some purpose? How is this any more important than that Japanese guy who won the hot dog eating contest in Coney Island two years in a row?
In a scale of heroes, the woman behind me in line today who was a foster mother for a microcephalic child is a greater hero than Fossett.
Can’t wait for baseball to start. I think that Bonds will get pretty close to Aaron’s record.