Voyager, flying nonstop around the earth - 1986

open after a few test flights over Mojave dick can Gina decided to take Voyager out for a longer ride to show it off their destination was the annual Jamboree for light aircraft enthusiasts at Oshkosh in Wisconsin this was Voyager country full of people not about building their own often experimental planes Voyager was the star of the show and dick and Gena heroes of the moment it was a great morale booster the project was seem to be moving and the grassroots kept on supporting usually with money the dream of a world record flies but in reality Voyager was nowhere near ready the rear-engine was using far too much fuel they would need a completely different design the automatic pilots had yet to be built and they'd not even decided what system they were going to use to navigate around the world also flying Voyager was not exactly a piece of cake it's a difficult airplane to fly the wings are flexible be kids some turbulence or our gust responds and the wings would flap Bop so the pilot would try to keep the fuselage level as best he could and then wondering about how bad the next gust is gonna be is it is this light am I gonna hit a real bad one is it gonna break the wings off already well but the fuel takes ruptured so we're in a relatively high state of anxiety to this whole time and they'd have to cover a punishing distance to claim the record the rules demand that you fly at least twenty-two thousand eight hundred and fifty eight miles that's the same distance as the Tropic of Cancer the route dick and Geena plan to take was longer about twenty-five thousand miles but has had two pluses the chance of better weather and it missed countries where there might be political problems most of this roost was over international waters so surviving an emergency at sea became vital this last done and don't there would be thought of it as in daredevil fully stunt because if you could see how methodical we go through each area like how do we ditch the airplane survivability is next to none and it's it breaks up it's it's gone so are we most likely they very likely can't survive a ditching mmm but if we do I mean you want to know how Man safety hooks up your left shoulder click on the tower yesterday HFD at the water dick managed to get Gina on the United States Air Force survival course that he'd taken as part of his fighter pilot training in three days Gina experienced every way of dunking that the airforce could dream up she passed with flying colors in Mojave the Voyager project was now becoming a tourist attraction Dick's mother was usually the first person the visitors met 10 12 year-old kids they come in here and that's the greatest thing with them they think you know I I'll get to show off because here I've gone and seen this airplane nobody else is seen it was family and friends who kept the project going it was taken just down the highway toward Los Angeles and that Soledad Mountain it's over on that side photos t-shirts badges mom had that instinctive American ability to sell both the plane and the dream uh the caps are are especially good buy because they have a to my daughter patch on iTunes well that's over how bad does it diplom prove your cocaine sure for $100 anybody could become a member of the Voyager Club with direct access to the hangar floor and a guided tour by Dick's father lighting strike the best way to make an airplane to make it lighting resistance is make it out of metal and during flight will they totally steer away from storms or I mean this club idea proved a winner over five thousand people paid to feel involved avoid going an immense distance out of the way and they're prepared to do that by February 1986 virtually all the hanger work had been finished together with most of the avionics the dream was now becoming a reality and dick was proud to tell QED all about their potential world-beater the Voyager is a twin-engine airplane the aft engine is a liquid cooled engine it is designed to run the entire 300 hours that the mission is destined to take it has no starter it must be hand started on the ground but once in flight if the engine fails we have no capability for restarting it and that will terminate the mission at that time now the front engine the front engine is more or less a standard aircraft engine it's air-cooled it's it's a little bit more horsepower than the back engine and it is designed to take the airplane during its heavy weight phase for the takeoff the climb and the initial cruise when the airplane is very heavy when that happens when we burn the fuel down a little bit then it is secured shut down feathered now it has an electric starter in case of any kind of contingencies we can restart the airplane and divert it into an abort base if we need to the board your aircraft is a canard configured airplane that is what we have a smaller wing located in front of the main wing not only did this give us a better improvement in aerodynamic efficiency it also affords us the opportunity to have an aircraft configured so that the main wing cannot stall that is as the aircraft increases its angle of attack to a point where it may stall and lose lift the canard is designed so it stalls first and it lures the nose laura's the angle of attack and ensures us that we never have a massive loss of lift on the main wing it takes a lot of fuel to fly around the world therefore Voyager is a virtual flying fuel tank there are 17 separate tanks on the aircraft now the main wing is comprised of three separate fuel tanks or three separate fuel cells they go from the root all the way virtually to the tip of the wing and each one of them is individually cockpit selectable now even though the wing is made out of carbon fiber it's still quite flexible as we can see here as we flex the wing up and down the only thing that bothers me on perseverance and the physical aspects of this is that they could be the last one that one we want to talk about it but he just he's not 20 years old anymore and some of those little things creep up on you I know he likes to think that he can do anything that anybody 20 year old can do but on an aspect that this that takes endurance I think there is some disadvantage at his age by last spring voyager was in the air again and the flight test began in earnest their deadline was early autumn when they should get the best weather right around the world voyagers cabin was not pressurized the plan was to fly at about 8,000 feet and use oxygen when they needed to go higher for better weather these flight tests were to log voyagers performance at different heights together with their own capabilities in July they stayed up for five days an attempt in September was looking very possible Mission Control was now established in a cabin alongside the hangar at Mojave before the date and I think that we'll have to overweighting there the weather experts all volunteers started preliminary scans on the weather worldwide my first priority just keep them out of bed weather especially turbulence because the airplane could be destroyed if who was very turbulent and that's a special consideration going the in through the Intertropical Convergence zone the next important thing is to get them the best tailwind possible because the range of the airplane is is a function of how well it till winds turn out and then there's a third consideration which is physiological and that is how much oxygen is onboard as to how high we can fly and sometimes the better winds may be at high altitude but if the flight surgeon indicates that he doesn't want them up there then we have to do the best when it's done at low levels throughout the late summer Voyager and its escort planes were a familiar sight over the Mojave Desert the test program sipped slightly but the results were confirming births original calculations Voyager looked as though it could carry enough fuel to make a serious attempt on the record confidence was now on a high with only two more test flights scheduled they could just about make that crucial September weather window but then their luck ran out as a video shot from the escort plane shows gofer dark just take it concave up front will set them right down here very good there's a bomb in the back with the front one once on the ground they saw just how close they'd come to disaster one of the wooden propeller blades had broken right off and the vibrations had snapped the supports that hold the engine in two places it was a miracle they weren't killed just to give you some idea of the tremendous forces that were being encountered in this engine not area here's one of the there's one of the engine mounts you can see it's distorted beat up pretty bad as compared to a to a new one this all happened in 15 seconds or maybe last time get stretched at a time like that it would have been very bad if it happened over the Indian Ocean let's say but we considered a stroke of good luck because we need to find out this sort of thing here close to home and you can you can be sure that when we get back in the air it'll be better than before this was this was fortune smiled on us oh we got no idea how difficult this thing was gonna be we're really pushing the art as far as technology goes just about every time we have a problem that's we feel down and rejected and we feel that it's gonna be too hard but then as all you have to do is think about what it feels like to actually accomplish the mission and if you still have a chance to make it high you just get all all excited and you just hammer at it again and you keep going but not a thought of quitting we're gonna have to work on luck now I think it's possible for the weather situations to be such that we could luck out and get around but I think that the chances of that are getting smaller and smaller with each passing day while the aircraft was being repaired and new propellers being made finances were so fragile that the project could fold without the cash from souvenirs including photographs signed by a new look Gina her hair had been cropped after all any less weight was bound to save fuel November and Voyager was ready to fly again though this time they were taking no chances they'd fit metal propellers but it meant even more test flights to know exactly how the new propellers performed metal propellers were heavier around a hundred pounds extra but they turned out to be far more efficient giving more miles per gallon and that just about compensated for the extra weight by now though they'd missed the best weather but the feeling was to go the sooner the better food sachets were prepared for each day of the flight to save waste they weren't going to eat very much anyway in fact they were going on a standard crash course diet supplemented with crisp bread there was no cutting back on the water though again an individual sachet for dick and Gina each day total waste 92 pounds we'll be right with you he is in conference at the moment with his brother December the 13th a press conference was hardly cold the weather was looking good enough for an attempt the next day uh just in case those some of you don't know who this is it's dick or tan are you ta n stall yours now this is the big one right the airplane is prepped at the end of the runway at Edwards it's being refueled and there's hardly anything wrong with it the airplane is in really good shape it's loaded yeah we're ready Edwards was used because it has a three mile long runway but it's right in the desert and that nice was particularly cold volunteers on the project brought sheets to try to protect the wings from a buildup of ice the desert night brought with it cold feet they decided to be ultra safe and add even more fuel they managed to get into the tanks an extra 57 gallons making 1000 in all yeah Voyageur had never ever taken off with such a heavy load the sheets had not stopped the ice warm air blowers were brought in there's only one thing left to do that is a book I gotta go take a piss in place they'd hoped to leave at first light but with the wings so full of fuel they needed to be sure that the air above Edwards had little or no turbulence at last a scout plane gave the old clear let's have everybody back only two jobs remained the official observer marked the seal he needed to be sure they didn't stop and the wing supports were removed the weight of all the fuel was only to apparent calling the speed was Gina's job with the heavier fuel load they Pope they need 88 knots before Voyager would have enough lift to fly it was now obvious that the wings were drooping far too much the tips seemed to be scraping the runway once the wings had lifted the whole profile of the aircraft's chain to get airborne they needed over 95 percent of the available runway we were about three and a half knots low there which was right on the key of abort and you didn't call it no no he had an airplane he wouldn't have listened anyway yes he would have but he had an airplane and I would have gone with it anyway if I was flying the immediate takeoff was pretty pretty exciting for me because I realized something was wrong when they were rolling and until they got it in the air I got pretty dance but how much damage had been done to the wings and could they still attempt the world flight dick decided he could force off the winglets inevitably someone spotted them I've heard planes going over and I looked up I saw the Voyager going by I thought that there's something out the window and this thing kept falling down Burt had to decide if the damage meant were calling the plane and the vent tube his runway grind damage also I went all the way all their runway didn't get to here it was a clean break there was no fuel leak the first really serious attempt at flying around the world without refueling was most definitely armed as they left the Californian coast they were on their own from now on no chase plane only radio links radio was their umbilical cord they would be totally dependent on it for the vital weather information if everything went well they'd be back in ten days Christmas Eve as far as I'm concerned Christmas is ruined never quite a few people but it'll be made if dick and Gena come back that's what we want you know that wonderful girl who left that message the other day she says just tell dick and Gina Godspeed but please don't bump into Santa Claus I thought that was just great yeah Mission Control was staffed like every other aspect of the project by volunteers here one team continually logged the performance particularly the fuel burn Voyager itself had no detailed fuel gauges again to save waste another team were the weather experts their forecasting skills would be vital one really bad storm and Voyager would break up December's weather is very different from that in September I'm feeling very good about the way we have revised the trifle it appears that which is fortuitous to take off yesterday because all the weather system systems are in just the place that you would put them if you were a weatherman to give the flight the best chance they plotted a new route much further north than the September 1 as Voyager slowly crossed the Pacific the weather was near ideal good tailwinds and very little turbulence the doctor made regular check-ups how about he'd have liked dick to have flown less for getting involved with a shear line to the north about 20 North order is a developing typhoon that is to the left of their path and we are planning to vector them between the two I think the luck that we needed is taking place because if the typhoon were very much farther north we would be in very serious trouble skirting typhoon Marg gave them tail winds right into the South China Sea they crossed Thailand and into the Indian Ocean here they passed 12 thousand five hundred and thirty two miles the previous non refuel record as they approached Africa avoiding war zones rather than bad weather became first priority no matter which way you go you got either higher mountains or you got the border but yes that's okay with the border they you can come right up to the border there's no problem the borders uh is okay this was voyager gently climbing through 8,000 feet above kenya as recorded on a home video camera surprisingly these were the only pictures taken on the world flight outside california though the weather looked good here the weatherman predicted that as Voyager crossed Central Africa they would hit bad storms with no real alternative roof they made it out of Africa then across the Atlantic towards the north coast of Brazil two-thirds of the way home everybody here is just fine everybody we're doing you're coming home and and I want you and Gina to give each other a great big hug for me because I've just missed hugging you all this time the Weathermen decided against the Gulf of Mexico and Texas instead they routed Voyager across Central America and up the Pacific coast good tailwinds so far meant that they looked like arriving back a day early good morning everyone the good news is that we got the call in from dick that he's going to arrive tomorrow morning at Oh dark thirty uh that's a favorite expression his and it means after dawn in 30 minutes thereafter I don't know how accurate we're gonna be on that but that's what we're looking at as the flight looked as if it would succeed so the press conferences got bigger and bigger the eyes of all America are now looking at the grassroots project from Mojave and the tiny desert town responded as best it could over at Edwards a media city instantly grew up on the desert floor each of the major networks was planning live coverage of the return December 23rd and early morning at Edwards was cold but dry the forecast for the next few hours was perfect clear with only the hint of a breeze voyager was first sighted just after dawn by one of the projects chase planes fearing too many aerial sightseers Mission Control had kept voyagers detailed route home secret it wasn't long before people on the ground got their first glimpse to here with naked eyes they're about two hands above the object above in the blue I probably won't say a single word I'll just hug him as hard as I can and I hope they're they're strong enough to withstand it because I've got big hug for so aren't we supposed to have stretchers right here almost here for wild are dang it soon became clear that the record flight had taken its toll not on Voyager but on the two exhausted pilots I can't doubt it going that long without sleep yeah you got redeye I'll tell you that how many hours you did you sleep for asking for uh I did we knew what we're driving up the coast you Donna knew it was gonna be all night long you know with the morning arrival and uh Riva one to ponderosa pine if someone went back in though I did get about two or three rest periods lived in our piece okay there'd be a couple hours so V the most I had no noise always yeah worst period without rest through Marg hurricane March uh-huh no no I was easy probably the most African Africa was a absolute [ __ ] what did you get what he does hey yo every night here you go home in the afternoon and everything to be pretty good in it and I'd go back any I did a little oh goody and everybody night it was this the most horrible experience it give us this like funky we ran right into a thunderstorm that's out there I bet the last minute I saw these clouds coming hmm and then then I'd sit there with and I watch them to all the three attitude indicators an airplane is real right vertical time I was ready yeah I'm a soldier that was just very cool then we popped out of it and then it was ninety degrees of Bank and then recovery nosed our keys inside of a cow holy bananas they were given a medical check-up Gina had lost nine pounds dick only six sister it turned out that they had eaten only about a tenth of the food they'd taken with them blood pressure was normal they had a slight hearing loss from the noise of the engines but otherwise they were fine just for the record dick and Jeana flew twenty five thousand and twelve miles in nine days four minutes and 33 seconds that's an average of 115 point seven miles per hour they took off with 1,000 gallons of fuel they arrived back with only 16

Channel: Hans van Will

Views: 80,716

Rating: 4.872941 out of 5

Keywords: Voyager, nonstop around the earth, 1986, flying nonstop around the earth, Jeana Yeager, Dick Rutan

Id: TunNolO9J4U

Length: 31min 42sec (1902 seconds)

Published: Sat May 31 2014