Pilots Test Plane for Global Flight Without Refueling
Two aviators took off from a windy Mojave Desert airfield today on a planned nonstop, 4 1/2-day shakedown flight to see if their experimental lightweight aircraft can fly around the world without refueling.
Its long thin wings flexing in a gusty cross-wind, the experimental Voyager climbed into the desert sky, circled the airfield and headed for the Pacific Ocean.
Pilot Dick Rutan and co-pilot Jeana Yeager slipped into the slim, tubular cockpit and took off on the engineering test flight at 8:10 a.m.
If all goes as planned, the Voyager will fly repeated circles between Santa Barbara and San Francisco, covering 12,532 miles with the pilots taking turns flying and resting until a landing scheduled at Mojave Sunday.
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