On 4 May 2006 12:20:32 -0700, "Don Parsons"
wrote:

Astronaut Mike Melvill to Visit The EAA Texas Fly-In in May 2006

. He is also the only
person other than Dick Rutan or Jeana Yeager to have piloted the
Voyager aircraft, the first airplane to fly around the world without
stopping or refueling, in 1986.


if he managed to fly the aircraft for all of 1986 without refuelling
he surely has a greater claim to fame than the round the world flight.

I wonder how many hours he chalked up in the year?

I can manage 5 hours myself but then I hafta refuel :-)

People attending The EAA Texas Fly-In at Hondo in 2006 can attend
forums on Saturday, May 13th, at which Mike Melvill will discuss how it
was to help design, build and then solo a rocket plane out of the
earth's stratosphere, re-deploy it as a "shuttlecock" glider and
re-enter the atmosphere safely.

shuttlecock design?????
surely this is just a full size implementation of Carl Goldberg's
dethermaliser idea that is used the world over by free flight
aeromodellers?

Stealth Pilot