ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, AUGUST 16, 2001 (6:00 P.M. CDT, 23:00 UTC) -- In his 12th day of flying, balloonist Steve Fossett has had an incredible time. Within the last 24 hours, he has completed his trek across the Pacific Ocean, entered airspace over Chile, ascended above the Andes Mountains, survived surging updrafts on the backside of the mountains, and journeyed through Argentina.
And Fossett's day isn't over: He will cross over the Piranha River in Argentina in about an hour (7 p.m. CDT, 0:00 UTC) on his way to Brazil. He should reach the Atlantic Ocean around 7:00 a.m. CDT (12:00 UTC) Friday, August 17, near Rio Grande, Brazil, said chief meteorologist Bob Rice of Mission Control at Washington University in St. Louis. According to current projections, it will take Fossett about four days to cross the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, possibly passing near Cape Town. It will likely take another four or five days to cross the Indian Ocean, Rice said.
Today was special for another reason: At 10:07 a.m. CDT (15:07 UTC), Solo Spirit crossed the half-way point over Argentina at longitude 63 degrees 19 minutes west. Having traveled more than 12,000 miles in 11 days, 23 hours, Fossett's current balloon flight is the second longest in duration ever. It is the longest solo flight on record, and the longest flight ever undertaken in an unpressurized gondola. The balloon flight duration and distance record was set in March 1999, when a two-man crew using a pressurized gondola circumnavigated the globe in 19 days, 22 hours.
Much has been written about flying, but maybe not as nicely as Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) in her book "North to the Orient" (1935): "Travelers are always discoverers, especially those who travel by air. There are no signposts in the air to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas." Fossett is certainly traveling in new uncharted areas in his mission to circumnavigate the globe solo.
Solo Spirit is traveling 22 miles per hour at an altitude of 20,000 feet. He is approaching a broad area of thunderstorm activity, but officials at Mission Control are working on the best flight path to help Fossett circumvent these storms.
