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 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - After a white-knuckle takeoff, millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett soared out over the Atlantic in a bony-looking experimental airplane Wednesday on a quest to break the 25,000-mile record for the world's longest aircraft flight.
Fossett squeezed into the tiny cockpit, kissed his wife goodbye and set out on the planned, 3 1/2-day nonstop journey, taking off from the Kennedy Space Center on a nearly three-mile runway that is normally used by space shuttles when they return to Earth.
His plane, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, is made of lightweight carbon fiber and has a super fuel-efficient turbofan jet engine with a very high thrust-to-weight ratio.
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