Delore & Fossett soar 2190 km

From the New Zealand newswire / Breaking News:

Delore flies 2190km, breaks record
07 December 2004

Christchurch gliding ace Terry Delore and American multi-millionaire adventurer
Steve Fossett have broken the world outright straight-line soaring distance
record with an epic flight of 15 hours along the Andes mountain range in
Argentina.

Fossett – the only person to have completed a solo circumnavigation of the
planet in a balloon – and Delore landed their 27m wingspan German ASH-25
twin-seater sailplane north of Mendoza late on Sunday night after covering
2190km. This added 16.5km to the record set last year by Germany's Klaus
Ohlmann, also in Argentina.

Delore and Fossett, who set a world triangle distance record of 1508.42km in
Argentina last year, began their record flight at Calafate, about 600km north
of Cape Horn. The straight-line distance record is considered one of the most
important of all gliding records.

The gliding partners, assisted by a crew of New Zealand pilots, also broke the
world declared straight-line distance record on the same flight with a new mark
of 2128km. The team has been in Argentina for about a month waiting for
suitable conditions, and expects to stay there until the end of December.

Delore and Fossett are now repositioning themselves at Chos Malal for an
attempt on the world 1000km speed record of 169.72kmh. They already hold the
world 500km, 750km and 1500km speed records.


(Wow, imagine soaring from Marfa, TX to San Francisco, or Miami to Chicago,
about 1,360 sm)

Burt
Marfa