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The Scaled Composites Model 311 Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer (registered N277SF) is an aircraft designed by Burt Rutan in which Steve Fossett flew a solo nonstop airplane flight around the world in 2 days 19 hours and 1 minute (67 hours 1 minute) from February 28 to March 3, 2005. The flight speed of 590.7 km/h (342.2 mph) set the Absolute World Record for the fastest nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation, beating the mark set by the previous Rutan-designed Voyager aircraft at 9 days 3 minutes and an average speed of 186.11 km/h (115.65 mph). The aircraft was owned by the pilot Steve Fossett, sponsored by Richard Branson's airline, Virgin Atlantic, and built by Burt Rutan's company, Scaled Composites. The two companies subsequently went on to work together on Virgin Galactic. Between February 8, 2006 – February 11, 2006, Fossett flew the GlobalFlyer for the longest aircraft flight distance in history: 25,766 miles (41,467 km). ==Construction== The GlobalFlyer was specifically designed to make an uninterrupted (non-refueled) circumnavigation of the globe with a single pilot. Unusually for a modern civil aircraft, the GlobalFlyer has only a single jet engine. Physically, the GlobalFlyer has twin tail booms mounted outboard of a shorter central fuselage nacelle. The pressurized cockpit is located in the front of the fuselage and provides 7 feet (2 m) of space in which the pilot sits. The single turbofan engine is mounted in an unusual position above the fuselage at a point several feet behind the cockpit, seen also on the Heinkel He 162 Salamander and Cirrus Vision. The outboard booms contain large fuel tanks and end in tail surfaces which are not cross-connected. The aircraft is constructed of carbon fiber reinforced epoxy, the main structural member being a high aspect ratio single-spar wing of 114 foot (35 m) span. The wings are made of high-strength composite materials with the skin of the aircraft being a graphite/epoxy and Aramid honeycomb. The use of lightweight materials permits the fuel (in thirteen tanks) to comprise 83% of the take-off weight. The aircraft had an estimated lift to drag ratio (L/D) of 37.〔David Noland, "Steve Fossett and Burt Rutan's Ultimate Solo: Behind the Scenes," ''Popular Mechanics'', Feb. 2005 ((web version ))〕 The aerodynamic drag is so low that, even with the engine idling, the aircraft can only descend at a maximum of . Twin drogue parachutes were used to slow the GlobalFlyer to landing speeds. The earlier Voyager aircraft suffered from design flaws that allowed it to warp in shape very easily, so the GlobalFlyer is designed to have greater stiffness. A single jet engine design was chosen for the GlobalFlyer for increased reliability over propeller engines and faster circumnavigation for the solo pilot. The GlobalFlyer is designed to operate at high altitudes where the air is colder, yet fuel heaters were not included in its design. There was some concern that the fuel might freeze if the aircraft was to use standard jet fuel. Therefore, the GlobalFlyer's Williams International FJ44-3 ATW turbofan (which normally takes Jet-A fuel), was re-calibrated to burn a fuel with a substantially lower freezing point: JP-4 fuel. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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