Rutan Voyager - Washington, DC
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 38° 53.311 W 077° 01.188
18S E 324820 N 4306344
The Rutan Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.
Waymark Code: WMPY42
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 11/08/2015
Views: 12
The Rutan Voyager is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Rutan Model 76 Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling. It was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager. The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base's 15,000 foot (4,600 m) long runway in the Mojave Desert on December 14, 1986, and ended 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds later on December 23, setting a flight endurance record. The aircraft flew westerly 26,366 statute miles (42,432 km; the FAI accredited distance is 40,212 km) at an average altitude of 11,000 feet (3,350 m). This broke a previous flight distance record set by a United States Air Force crew piloting a Boeing B-52 that flew 12,532 miles (20,168 km) in 1962...
World flight
Voyager's world flight takeoff took place on the longest runway at Edwards AFB at 8:01 am local time on December 14, 1986, with 3,500 of the world's press in attendance. As the plane accelerated, the tips of the wings, which were heavily loaded with fuel, were damaged as they unexpectedly flew down and scraped against the runway, ultimately causing pieces (winglets) to break off at both ends. (The pilot had wanted to gain enough speed that the inner wings, rather than the fragile outer wings, would lift the plane; in 67 test flights, the plane had never been loaded to capacity.) The aircraft accelerated very slowly and needed approximately 14,200 feet (2.7 mi)(4.3 km) of the runway to gain enough speed to lift from the ground, the wings arching up dramatically just before take-off. The two damaged winglets were removed by flying the Voyager at high speed at low altitude for the first hour of flight. Burt Rutan following with pilot Mike Melvill determined Voyager was still within its performance specifications despite the damage and decided to allow the flight to continue. During the flight, the two pilots had to deal with extremely cramped quarters. To reduce stress, the two had originally intended to fly the plane in three-hour shifts, but flight handling characteristics while the plane was heavy prevented routine changeovers and they became very fatigued. Rutan reportedly stayed at the controls without relief for almost the first three days of the flight."