Adventurer Steve Fossett landed in Kansas on Thursday, becoming the first person to make a solo flight around the world without refueling. His single-engine jet-powered experimental plane touched down at the Salina Municipal Airport at 2:48 p.m. EST (1948 GMT) in a smooth landing about 67 hours after he left the same strip on Monday night. A high school band, dozens of media and hundreds of spectators were at the airport to watch the landing, along with Virgin Atlantic chief Richard Branson who paid for the project. The final day of Fossett's flight was dogged by an unanticipated fuel shortage that for a time jeopardized its completion. Project director Paul Moore said fuel somehow leaked or more fuel was consumed than was realized early in the flight, leaving Fossett with barely enough to get across the Pacific. At one point a landing in Japan was under consideration but the ground team decided to risk a Pacific crossing at least to Hawaii. Fossett made it there with no problems and thanks to a continuing tail wind crossed the California coast earlier in the day and onto Kansas under power. --More 2257 Local Time 1957 GMT
