Excerpt from EXTREME SCIENCE
by Larry Verstraete
|
In 1986 Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan achieved a record for continuous flight of their own. Using an experimental aircraft called Voyager, the two flew around the world without once touching down to refuel.
Voyager had been designed with special features to do the job. It had two engines, one for takeoff and a smaller one for cruising through the air. It was constructed of lightweight materials to economize on fuel. But Voyager's most unusual feature was its wings. It had an H-shape design, with a large main wing near the rear of the plane, a smaller stabilizing wing near the front, and booms on either side of the plane connecting the two. The wings and boom were loaded with highly flammable fuel - 4500 litres of it.
Space aboard the plane was limited. The quarters were cramped and only one person at a time could sit at the controls. The other had to stretch out flat in the space behind. Rutan and Yeager alternated positions, resting fitfully for two or three hours at a time or gulping down one of the pre-cooked meals they had brought with them.
Most of their time, however, was spent keeping the plane in balance. The fuel was held in seventeen separate tanks, and as it burned its weight shifted. To keep the plane balanced, fuel had to be redistributed by pumping it from one tank to another.
Rutan and Yeager left Edwards Air Force Base in California on December 14, 1986. They returned nine days later after circling the globe - a day ahead of schedule, but not a moment too soon. Voyager had only 68 litres of fuel left in its tanks.
From Extreme Science, copyright © 2000 by Larry Verstraete.
|
|
