Biography
American billionaire and
adventurer, a record-breaking aviator, balloonist and sailor,
accomplished mountain-climber, tri-athlete and swimmer. With 116
record-setting achievements to his name, Fossett was the first person to
fly a solo, nonstop flight around the world, a trip financed by Virgin
Atlantic's founder Richard Branson. Taking off from Salina, Kansas on
Monday, February 28, 2005, Fossett landed at 2:49 PM ET (according to
CNN) on March 3, 2005 at the same airfield. He had spent 67 hours in the
air. By 2005 he had racked up world records in five sports - balloons,
sailboats, gliders, airships and powered aircraft.
Among the aviation records he holds is his feat as first solo balloonist
to circumnavigate the world in a balloon. He set the record on July 4,
2002 after completing the 13-day, 12-hour and five-minute trip on which
he achieved record speed and set the record for distance traveled in a
single day. The trip marked his sixth attempt to fly around the world in
a balloon.
Fossett has more than ten world records for flight, including a record
for the number of transcontinental flights in the US and Australia. At
742 miles per hour, he achieved the fastest speed ever for a
non-supersonic plane, and he and a partner set nine records for gliders.
In 2006 he set yet another record, this time for the longest non-stop
flight in history.
His records set on water are just as impressive. Since 1993, he has set
21 world records for sailing, 14 of which still stand in 2005, and nine
distance race records, eight of which he still holds in 2005. In October
2001, Steve and his team crossed the Atlantic in a record 4 days, 17
hours. On April 5, 2004 at about 4:00 PM BST, he completed the fastest
circumnavigation of the world by sailboat.
In addition to swimming the English Channel, he's competed in the Iron
Man Triathlon, driven in the grueling "24 hours of Le Mans" twice,
scaled mountain summits on six out of seven continents, run the Boston
Marathon and completed the Iditarod dog race in Alaska.
Fossett has a long list of honors and awards to his name. In 2002, he
received the prestigious Gold Medal of the Federation Aeronautique
Internationale (FAI). Upon his induction the National Aviation Hall of
Fame in July 2007, he said, "I'm hoping you didn't give me this award
because you think my career is complete, because I'm not done.”
Fossett said he was not a natural team-sport athlete as a child but
found that he could excel in individual endeavors like running and
mountain climbing, sports that required endurance and persistence.
Growing up in California, he became an accomplished mountain climber by
the time he entered college. With a bachelor's degree in economics from
Stanford University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis,
Fossett started his career at IBM in New York City. He and his wife,
Peggy Viehland, whom he had married in 1968, moved to Chicago a few
years later. He left his job in computer systems and became a
stockbroker specializing in options trading.
Fossett found his niche in the financial services industry and his
career took off. With his first million under his belt, he started his
own options trading company, Lakota Trading in 1980, a lucrative move.
His next company, Marathon Securities added to his wealth. "Both
pursuits require a competitiveness," he says. "As a floor trader, I was
very aggressive and worked hard. Those same traits help me in adventure
sports." One interviewer said that Fossett "ate determination for
breakfast." When asked about his motivation for driving himself so hard,
Fossett responded, "I'm doing these things for personal accomplishment,
not the thrills. I don't do these things because I have a death wish."
His wife Peggy has supported his choices throughout their marriage
although she is described as risk-averse, home-loving, “practical and
private.”
Even at age 63, Fossett had no plans to retire. He once said "I imagine
that when I'm 80 years old and sitting in a wheelchair that I might do
something like take a remote control airplane and try and fly it around
the world. I plan to be setting and breaking records indefinitely." His
plans will evidently not materialize. On September 3, 2007 at 8:45 AM
local time, he took off in a light single-engine plane from magnate
Barron Hilton's ranch near Yerington, NV. He was scouting for a new site
from which to set a new land-speed record. He never returned. An
exhaustive search has turned up no trace of the record-setting
adventurer or the plane. On November 26, 2007, his wife Peggy asked a
court to declare him dead.
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