Overview

In December 1986 two pilots, Dick Rutan (1939-) and Jeana Yeager (1952-), landed an odd-looking aircraft called Voyager in the California desert after making the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling. The Voyager pilots spent 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds aloft in a cabin the size of a phone booth. The 25,012-mile (40,244 km) flight was the last major milestone left in aviation and was the result of six years of work. Pilot Dick Rutan and his brother Burt, Voyager's designer, intended the plane and the round-the-world flight to usher in a new era in aviation that would take advantage of novel materials and designs.

Background

The concept of an extremely efficient plane capable of flying around the world...