It was known as the ultimate goal in aviation. The aim was to fly around the world without stopping or adding more fuel. In this episode, Frank Oliver and Doug Johnson talk about a special plane called Voyager and the efforts involved in setting this challenging world record.
The idea for Voyager started with a quick sketch on a small piece of paper. Six years later, that drawing had become a plane that would make history.
Many people gave their time, energy and money to make the flight happen. But three people played leading roles in the event: Dick Rutan: Burt Rutan. Jeana Yeager.
Dick Rutan was an experienced pilot. He had served as a pilot in the United States military during the Vietnam War. Afterwards, he worked as a test pilot. He flew planes designed by his younger brother, Burt.
Burt Rutan was renowned for designing experimental aircraft. Jeana Yeager, meanwhile, held nine world flight records as a pilot.
One day in early 1981, Dick, Burt and Jeana were eating in a restaurant in Mojave, California. Burt turned to his brother and asked a wild question: ‘How would you like to be the first person to fly around the world without stopping to refuel?’
The three of them considered the idea. A non-stop flight around the world without refuelling was the last flight record to be set. It had always been considered impossible. No plane could carry enough fuel to fly forty thousand kilometres.
But now there were new materials for planes. Burt believed that he could build a plane capable of making the voyage. Dick and Jeana believed they could fly it. No one could think of a good reason not to try.
Burt picked up a small piece of paper. He drew an aeroplane that looked like a giant wing and not much else. That was the beginning.
Not since the days of Orville and Wilbur Wright had people setting a new flight record designed and built their own aircraft. Dick, Burt and Jeana did. Some people thought their Voyager project was both impossible and foolish. Everyone knew it would be dangerous.
The Voyager crew worked on the plane in a small hangar at an airport in the Mojave Desert, California. Dick, Burt and Jeana did not receive any government funding. Instead, they received small donations from lots of different people.
As news of the project spread, more and more people offered to help. These included aviation engineers and workers from the space agency’s experimental aircraft programme. Several aeroplane companies offered equipment for use in the plane. By the time Voyager was finished, it contained parts worth two million dollars.
Burt Rutan had built lightweight planes before. He knew that a normal aluminium plane could not make a round-the-world trip without refuelling. So he decided to build Voyager almost entirely out of new materials. These materials were extremely light yet strong. This meant Voyager could lift and carry many times its own weight in fuel.
The finished plane weighed just 900 kilograms — about the same as a small car. Its full fuel load weighed three times that much: around three thousand kilograms. Voyager was not built to be a fast plane. It flew at around 175 kilometres per hour.
The finished plane’s main wing was more than thirty-three metres across. This is wider than the wings of today’s large passenger planes. The centre of the plane held the crew. On either side of this were two long fuel tanks.
Almost the entire Voyager was a fuel tank. Seventeen separate containers were squeezed into every available space. During the flight, the pilots had to transfer fuel from one container to another to maintain balance. Power was provided by one engine at each end of the plane’s body.
The area for the two pilots was unbelievably small. It was just one metre wide and two-and-a-quarter metres long. The pilot sat in the pilot’s seat. The other person had to lie down at all times.
After many test flights, the Voyager was finally ready in December 1986. The best time of year to fly around the world is from June to August. That time had long passed. However, the pilots were tired of the delays. They decided to take off, knowing the weather might be bad.
On 14 December, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager walked around the plane one last time. It looked like a giant white flying insect. They were going to trust their lives to this strange aircraft for the next nine days.
Dick climbed into the only seat. Jeana lay on the floor. They were ready to go. Flight controllers at Edwards Air Force Base in California gave them clearance for a journey that had never been attempted before.
The plane’s long, thin wings were so heavily loaded with fuel that they almost touched the ground. Voyager began to move slowly down the runway. But something was wrong. The wingtips were not lifting.
Burt Rutan radioed his brother, instructing him to lift the plane’s nose. ‘Pull back on the stick!’ he screamed. “Pull back!” But Dick did not hear the warning. He did not see the wings. He was looking straight ahead.
The Voyager was getting dangerously close to the end of the runway. It appeared to be about to crash. Finally, just in time, the wings swept up. The plane leapt into the air.
The planes following Voyager could see that the ends of its wings were badly damaged. Dick turned the plane so that the force of the air currents would break off the damaged parts. Then he aimed Voyager out over the Pacific Ocean.
The main consideration in designing the experimental plane was weight. Not safety. Not comfort. The Voyager did not have most of the normal safety equipment found in modern planes. There were no special materials to block out the noise of the engines. The space for the pilots was so tight that they had great difficulty changing places.
The winds caused Voyager’s long wings to move up and down. It appeared to glide on currents of air, much like a sailboat on ocean waves. This motion made for an extremely rough flight.
It was not an enjoyable trip. Dick and Jeana were always tense. By the end of the second day, the flight’s weather expert warned of trouble ahead. Voyager was heading for an ocean storm. However, Dick was able to fly close to the storm and ride its winds.
On the third day, Voyager encountered trouble again. This time, it had to fly between huge thunderclouds on one side and Vietnamese airspace on the other. Dick managed to keep the plane safely in the middle.
Over Africa, the two pilots struggled with continuous stormy weather. Dick had flown almost all of the first sixty hours of the flight. Then he swapped places with Jeana for short periods. They were both extremely tired.
Suddenly, a red warning light turned on. This indicated that there was insufficient oil in one of the engines. They had been so busy trying to fly around bad weather and mountains that they had forgotten to check the oil level. Fortunately, luck was on their side.
They added the necessary oil. The engine was not damaged.
Once they had passed the violent weather over Africa, Dick and Jeana began planning their route home. A computer confirmed that they had enough fuel to make it. However, as they flew up the coast of Mexico, the engine at the back of the plane failed. Fuel had stopped flowing to it.
The more powerful front engine had already been shut down earlier to save fuel. With both engines out of action, Voyager quickly began to lose speed and altitude. The plane fell for five minutes. Dick finally managed to start the front engine again. Then fuel started flowing to the rear engine and it began working again.
Nine days after take-off, Voyager landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It had completed a 40,000-kilometre flight around the world. It had not stopped. Nor had it refuelled.
After landing, Dick said: ‘This is the last major event of atmospheric flight.’ Jeana added, ‘It was much more difficult than we ever imagined.’
Burt Rutan’s revolutionary plane design had worked. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager had therefore joined the ranks of the world’s greatest fliers.
