67 HOURS OF CALCULATION AND SKILL

Flight Journal, Aug 2005 by Sugar, Jim

THE REAL STORY OF STEVE FOSSETT'S WORLD-RECORD FLIGHT

FROM FEBRUARY 28 TO MARCH 3, 2005, adventurer and pilot Steve Fossett set a series of world aviation records by flying the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFtyer aircraft around the world in a record 67 hours 2 minutes and 38 seconds. He is the first person to fly an airplane solo, nonstop and on a single tank of gas on such a long and potentially dangerous flight, so his achievement was remarkable. He flew for a distance of 19,923.35 miles, barely exceeding the minimum distance of 19,864 nautical miles for a round-the-world flight set by the National Aeronautics Association, and his time set the world record for absolute speed around the world without stopping. Fossett did not break the absolute distance world record set in 1987 by Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager in the Voyager, but for his risky solo effort, Fossett deserves all of the plaudits that he has garnered.

As an interested observer who followed the design, construction and 27 test flights over the past three years, I know that the work of three other people was equally responsible for making the flight such an outstanding success. These three did nothing less than save Steve Fossett's life during his flight. This article recounts their achievements.

MOJAVE AIRPORT IS THE DOMINANT landmark in the desert town of Mojave, California, and there's only one thriving business: Scaled Composites. Founded by aeronautical engineer Burt Rutan and two partners in 1982, it has grown to 130 employees who have produced 30 original aircraft designs of all shapes and sizes and to achieve a variety of goals. Throughout its 23-year history, Rutan has been the spark and the emotional center that makes this company prosper, and though the town is in decline, Scaled Composites is a raging success.

In October 2004, Rutan's X-prize aircraft, White Knight and SpaceShipOne, launched two civilian astronauts to the edge of space. Four months later, in February 2005, his GlobalFlyer sent a pilot around the earth. No one, including the Wright brothers, has succeeded so brilliantly on two such difficult and dangerous missions in such a short time.

While Rutan provides the passion and the design genius, his extraordinary coworkers sweat to deliver custom-made, one-of-a-kind flying machines. Twenty-five employees worked on the GlobalFlyer's construction, but only three were with it from its inception, and they were there when a triumphant Steve Fossett climbed out of the cockpit at the end of the recordbreaking flight.

Yes, Rutan came up with the initial concept and oversaw the plane's evolution, but the project's successful completion and flight owes much to engineer Jon Karkow; he was the project engineer and the test pilot. Of the GlobalFlyer's 28 flights-including the world flight-Karkow flew 19 and Fossett nine.

Many Scaled Composites employees live in nearby Tehachapi or Lancaster, but Karkow lives in Mojave in a small apartment that's about a five-minute bicycle ride from the "office"-Hangar 63, where the airplane was built and then housed for two years. During its construction and test flights, it was his life. Except for the companionship of his girlfriend, Cheryl Cotman (who reminded him to eat), Karkow tolerated few interruptions.

Scaled Composites employees begin work at 7 a.m.-Karkow regularly biked over to the hangar by 6:45 a.m.-and the official workday concludes at 5 p.m. On many nights, Karkow put in long hours and left the hangar after dark. Karkow mastered the GlobalFlyer and knew its every detail: the good and the bad, its strengths and its weaknesses. He understood it from the perspective of a trained engineer who refined the systems designs, and as a skilled test pilot. He was involved in all the decisions that were made about testing and improving its onboard systems.

Scaled Composites' policy requires senior management to attend every preflight and postflight briefing. With Burt Rutan, X-Prize SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill and general manager Doug Shane, Karkow led the preflights with a discussion about the mission and the problems and challenges of the upcoming flight. Then he flew the plane. After his test flight, when the ground crew pushed the plane into the hangar, Karkow returned to the briefing room with the same cast of characters to offer a postflight critique. Though he is a man of few words, it was never a problem to get him to talk to the project engineer-he was the project engineer! At 7 a.m. the next day, Karkow returned to his desk and computer in Hangar 63 to sort out the problems revealed during the previous day's flight.

BEFORE GLOBALFLYER'S FIRST FLIGHT, one incident in particular revealed the depth of Karkow's passion and commitment to the project. When he first climbed into the cockpit and fired up the Williams FJ44 turbofan engine for its first 15-minute ground run, the engine's roar and vibration-just three feet behind him-left him temporarily deaf and feeling nauseated. If he couldn't withstand a 15-minute engine run-up, how would Steve Fossett be able to survive the three-and-a-half days it would take him to circle the globe? Was the airplane destined for failure?