Voyager

The pilots who designed and flew the "Voyager" around the world tell of the cramped quarters, constant noise, turbulent trip, and other struggles they faced in realizing the dream of their historic flight

On the morning of December 23, 1986, Yeager and Rutan, man and wife, set down their one-of-a-kind, home-built airplane, Voyager, at the base in California where, little more than nine days earlier, they had begun their nonstop flight around the worlda 25,000-mile-plus adventure they describe in dramatically human terms in this richly illustrated book. They tell their story in alternating and nicely dovetailed this-is-how-it-was first-person pieces, with help from Phil Patton, who wrote Open Road and Razzle Dazzle. More than half the book focuses on the several years before the flight, which Jeana and Dick, with a growing legion of professional and volunteer helpers, spent designing, building, testing and testing again (dangerously) their ultra-light, catamaran-shaped craft with its tiny "horizontal telephone booth" cockpit. The intrepid pair, who "didn't know what we were getting ourselves into," met at an airshow, he a Vietnam flier of 105 missions, she both a pilot and a horse-trainer. They shared the dream of the flight, fell in love, married and went on to see their know-how and courage tested almost beyond endurance in the voyage that more than once nearly ended in disaster. Photos. 70,000 first printing; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.