US: Adventurer Steve Fossett has become the first person to complete a non-stop solo flight around the world without refuelling, landing in Kansas yesterday after almost three days in the air.
His single-engine, jet-powered experimental plane landed at Salina Municipal Airport at 2.48 pm local time, close to 67 hours after he had taken off from the same strip on Monday night.
"I'm a really lucky guy now, I got to achieve my ambition," the 60-year-old millionaire said after stepping out of the cramped capsule.
A school band, dozens of reporters and hundreds of spectators were at the airport to watch the landing, along with the head of Virgin Atlantic Richard Branson, who sponsored the flight.
The last day of Mr Fossett's flight was marred by a fuel shortage which could have jeopardised its completion. Project director Paul Moore said that fuel had somehow leaked, or more fuel had been consumed than was realised early in the flight, leaving Fossett with barely enough to get across the Pacific.
At one point, a landing in Japan was considered, but the ground team decided to risk a Pacific crossing at least to Hawaii. Fossett made it there with no problems and, with the aid of a continuing tail-wind, he was able to cross the California coast and continue on to Kansas.
Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan were the first to make a non-stop flight around the world without refuelling. Their flight, in 1986, was a nine-day circumnavigation covering 26,366 miles.
While Fossett is the first to make the flight alone, it will not enter the record books, since the Paris-based Federation Aeronautique Internationale does not have a separate category for solo pilots. However, Fossett's team hope to qualify for distance and speed records, which remain to be certified.