At least here in the States, 55 is a big birthday— mostly for reasons related to retirement and collecting social security, neither of which seems at all relevant for our favorite rebel billionaire! Regardless, Happy Birthday, Richard, and of course, best wishes for continued success in the years ahead, from your friends and fans here at BransonBlog.com. PS: The cake’s in the mail.

Well, it’s official… Steve Fossett completed his global circumnavigation solo flight! Some details from ABC News:

His single-engine jet-powered experimental plane touched down at the Salina Municipal Airport at 2:48 p.m. EST in a smooth landing about 67 hours after he left 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 in which he had spent nearly three days.

A high school band, dozens of media and hundreds of spectators were at the airport to watch the landing, along with Virgin Atlantic chief Richard Branson who paid for the project.

Branson waved a bedsheet-sized checkered flag when the plane touched down and sprayed Fossett with champagne after greeting him with a hug.

Congratulations to everyone involved! The Global Flyer website has a note that they’re off partying with the team and will post more pictures and info tonight. (Hopefully the next big advenure will have better website plans… Seems like the site fell apart under load, totally overwhelmed for hours at a time, etc. You know, we’d happily volunteer to help with scalability planning at no cost!) Anyway, more news and pics when available.

Still looking good… looks like Global Flyer will arrive in Salina, KS around 11:20am Pacific Time. The photo caption from an ABC News article:

Sir Richard Branson listens to reporters questions as he sits before a photo of GlobalFlyer during a press briefing at mission control at the Salina Municipal Airport in Salina, Kan. Thursday, March 3, 2005. Pilot Steve Fossett was hoping to land in Salina later in the day in an attempt to be the first to fly solo nonstop around the world without refueling. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

From an article in the Kansas City Star:

When asked if the Mission Control team had overplayed the seriousness of the fuel shortage, Branson replied: “Incredibly, the thing is, in life truth is often stranger than fiction.”

Branson said he had expected the flight would either be disastrous or boring but “everything that could have happened seems to have happened. There has been a lot of drama.”

Never a dull moment. Seems to be the Branson Way.

By the way, I somehow neglected to mention the coolest link— to the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer Flight Tracker, with real-time location and news updates.

The website itself has more detailed news updates as well, including an interesting note about how Steve had to add miles to the trip just to reach the round-the-globe requirement of 19,863 nautical miles. (No permalink, but it’s at the top of the front page right now.) Huh? You take off in Salina, Kansas… You land in Salina, Kansas… but somehow the fastest path may not be long enough to qualify as a round-the-globe trip? What am I missing?

It’s also got to be a bit bizarre when you’re worried about fuel and you’re artificially adding miles to your trip to satisfy the bean-counters at the Guiness Book or something…

Update: Ahh, this article makes much more sense: "He is trying to break several aviation records, including the longest flight by a jet. The record is more than 19 300km, set by a B-52 bomber in 1962." So it was probably something like this which required him to add more miles. Incredibly ambitious when you’re running low on fuel!

Well, so far, so good, all things considered… Fossett has passed Hawaii and is now en route to the California coast. The BBC story shows that he got what he wanted from the wind:

Mission organisers said Mr Fossett had been helped across the Pacific from the coast of Japan by strong tailwinds of between 100 and 130 knots, bringing the circumnavigation record back within his grasp.

Mr Fossett said: "I hit the jet stream very well which has put us in a better fuel position. I have every hope of making it to Salina tomorrow."

Wind speeds of 100-130 knots far exceed the 58 knots he was hoping for, so it’s a good sign that he may yet complete the full global flight tomorrow… Stay tuned!

Uh oh. The Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer website (which btw was inaccessible for much of Monday when I checked, probably due to high website traffic volume) has announced that fuel problems may require the GlobalFlyer trip to be cancelled. Looks like 2200 lbs of fuel are missing, so Steve Fossett is "literally at the mercy of the winds" to keep the mission alive at this point. [Read more]

The long-awaited launch of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer is finally upon us— or rather, Steve Fossett is somewhere above us. BBC has an article with some details, including a note about the chase plane with a passenger of interest to our little website:

This cockpit is tight, little more than 7ft (2m) long. He will have good visibility out the side ports; radio, satellite phone and e-mail will keep him in touch with mission control and a chase plane that will occasionally follow his progress.

His good friend and sponsor Sir Richard Branson, chairman of the Virgin Group, will be up in the air to talk to Steve and cheer him on.

I imagine that Sir Richard, the perpetual adventurer, must be quite fidgety watching someone else make the attempt and not getting to do it himself! Of course, backing the project is quite involved, but not exactly the same thing as flying solo yourself. A few more details as well:

A one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft is ready to attempt the first solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the globe without refueling. The flight is firmly slated for Monday, Feb. 28, though takeoff is still dependent on weather.

Launch of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer from Salina, Kansas has been given a thumbs-up by officials, who have delayed the attempt since January because of bad weather locally and along the route. Liftoff of the aircraft is expected to take place between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Central Time (3-7 p.m. ET).

More news as it’s available, of course.

Anyone have more news about Sir Richard’s bungee jumping stunt Down Under today? According to NEWS.com.au, Branson’s stunt was planned for today to promote new airline routes. As the article puts it, "Should he survive, Branson will host a Virgin Atlantic launch party at Wharf 3 in Millers Point. " If you’ve got more info about this, drop us a note at editors @ this site. Thanks!

All the news these days seems to be talking about Virgin Galactic and how Branson is working with Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites on five spaceships to begin space tourism in just a few years. While that’s obviously very exciting, it’s also interesting to see what Burt Rutan is cooking up for the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, an experimental plane that should allow Steve Fossett (Branson’s ballooning partner) to become the first man to fly solo around the world non-stop. [Read more]