Here's the link. They're hoping to attempt a solo unfueled around-the-world flight as soon as next month.

Adventurer Steve Fossett plans to take off from Salina, Kan.--perhaps as soon as early February--to be the first man to fly solo around the world, unrefueled.

He will be piloting the Virgin Atlantic "GlobalFlyer" built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites company here. Rutan also built Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world unrefueled, in a project put together by his brother Dick and piloted by him and Jeana Yeager in 1986 (AW&ST Jan. 5, 1987, p. 22). In contrast, GlobalFlyer has only a single crewman, and is jet-powered to speed and simplify the trip. Voyager took 9 days and GlobalFlyer could take as little as 2 days 17 hr.

While trials so far have gone well, engineers are still anxious about the record flight attempt because it will be heavier than any test. The fraction of weight that's structure is extremely low. The scariest part is being heavy on fuel at takeoff and climbing through turbulence, says Clint Nichols, the flight test and performance engineer. Handling, which so far has been reasonable, could take a dramatic turn with the final 15% increase in takeoff weight. And there's concern about whether the aircraft can descend quickly enough from high altitude, even with drogue chutes deployed, for the pilot to breathe oxygen adequately if the engine dies, causing a quick loss of cabin pressure.

GlobalFlyer has made 23 test flights so far to iron out the bugs and get the aircraft's systems into proper working order. Measured range performance indicates it can make the long trip. "It's in pretty good shape for the round-the-world flight," says Scaled project engineer and test pilot Jon Karkow. Fossett expects to fly it to the Salina mission base this month, possibly as soon as this week, then make a few flights of his own before the record attempt. He has already flown it several times from Scaled's facility here.

The article describes some of the challenges they've had to deal with. This is a pretty risky proposition.