Pilot Attempts Solo Polar Circumnavigation in Single-Engine Aircraft

[Crossbow]

Gus McLeod will attempt a solo circumnavigation of the globe (via a polar route) in a single engine aircraft (a modified Velocity).

Wow! This guy has some serious b*lls!

About three years ago he flew a Stearman to the North Pole solo (the first time anyone had ever done such a thing in an open cockpit airplane), now he has found something to top that. Check out his story in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36929-2003Dec28.html

Gaithersburg Aviator Aims for New Heights
Pilot Attempts to Circumnavigate Globe Over Both Poles in Single-Engine Aircraft

...

McLeod, 49, a Gaithersburg businessman and former CIA chemist, plans to take to the skies again today, trying to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe over both poles in a single-engine aircraft.

"I'm as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof," McLeod said yesterday. "But if I survive, it will be really cool."

...

McLeod said this will be the fifth attempt to try to fly around the world over both poles in a single-engine craft. All have failed, including a helicopter team that crashed nine days ago in Antarctica, one-third of the way into the trip.

...

[BTox]

Former CIA chemist? Cool...

[Jocko]

Anything that helps draw attention away from bored rich guys and their bloody ballons has got to be good news in my book. That being said, I suppose it's gutsy but these things just don't have that Lindberg romance anymore.

Maybe it's time to take another look at that Mars landing idea.

[WildCat]

Originally posted by Jocko
Anything that helps draw attention away from bored rich guys and their bloody ballons has got to be good news in my book.
Apparently that bored rich guy (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,12543,525976,00.html) is into airplanes now.
Around the world on a single tank of gas has been done. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager accomplished the feat in 1986, flying Burt Rutan's brilliant propeller-driven Voyager aircraft. It was a gruelling nine-day ordeal for the duo, and it stretched aviation technology to its limits.

But Richard Branson and Steve Fossett think they can push the technology even further, and today the pair unveiled their plans to go one better—flying solo, and in only a third the time.

Fossett is no stranger to bold risks—he holds numerous official aviation and nautical world records, including the first solo balloon flight around the world—but the biggest challenge here may be human frailty.
Never underestimate bored rich guys. :p