Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, and the Nine Days Voyager Flew Around the World Without Landing

On December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager departed Edwards Air Force Base in the experimental aircraft Voyager and flew 24,986 miles around the Earth - nonstop and without refueling - touching down nine days, three minutes, and forty-four seconds later. No aircraft had ever completed a full global circumnavigation without stopping or taking on additional fuel. Voyager now hangs in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, alongside the Wright Flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis.

What Was Voyager, and How Was It Built?

Voyager was designed by Burt Rutan, one of the most unconventional engineers in aviation history - the same mind who later gave the world SpaceShipOne. He sketched the concept on a paper napkin at a restaurant in Mojave in 1981. The central premise was straightforward: build an airplane light enough and aerodynamically efficient enough to carry its own fuel for an entire circumnavigation, without any external assistance.

The aircraft that emerged from six years of construction looked like nothing else in the air. Its wings stretched 110 feet tip to tip. The fuselage measured just 9 feet long. Two booms extended aft from the wings to a tail structure, with a pusher engine at the rear and a tractor engine up front. 17 fuel tanks were integrated into every available hollow space in the airframe.

Voyager was built almost entirely from composite materials - graphite fiber, fiberglass, and Kevlar - construction methods more commonly associated with boat hulls at the time. The cockpit measured 7.5 feet long and 3.5 feet wide. One pilot flew while the other rested in a bunk barely wide enough to turn over in.

Who Were Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager?

Dick Rutan, Burt’s brother, flew in the left seat. A former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, he had logged 125 combat missions over Vietnam in the F-100 Super Sabre - the kind of pilot who had already seen the worst aviation could deliver.

Jeana Yeager - no relation to Chuck Yeager - occupied the right seat. She was a pilot, a navigator, and one of Voyager’s builders, having contributed directly to the aircraft’s construction over the six years it took to complete. She and Dick Rutan had chased this record together from the start.

What Made the Takeoff So Dangerous?

When Dick pushed the throttles forward on runway 22 at Edwards, Voyager weighed 9,694 pounds. The aircraft itself accounted for only 1,858 pounds of that total. The rest - roughly 72 percent of the gross takeoff weight - was aviation gasoline. They were, in effect, flying an enormous fuel tank with wings attached.

Those heavy fuel loads had immediate consequences. As Voyager accelerated down the runway, its long, flexible wings began to sag under the weight. The wingtips dragged along the pavement and scraped the surface for approximately 14 seconds while the crowd watching from the lakebed held its breath.

The wingtip extensions ultimately tore free. Dick held the nose down a moment longer to build airspeed, then rotated. Chase planes moved in to assess the damage - the extensions were gone, but the structural integrity held. The flight was on.

What Challenges Did They Face During the Nine-Day Flight?

Three days in, Voyager encountered Typhoon Marge building in the Pacific. Dick deviated south to skirt the storm, burning additional fuel and adding miles to the route. Mission planners on the ground ran the fuel numbers carefully, and the margin for error shrank.

Over Africa, the front engine quit without warning. Oil pressure dropped to zero. Dick and Jeana attempted a restart - nothing. They flew on the pusher engine alone for hours before finally coaxing the front engine back to life and pressing on.

The cumulative toll on both pilots was severe. The cockpit offered no room to stand, and the noise, vibration, and pervasive smell of aviation fuel - with tanks just inches away - made sleep nearly impossible. Dick Rutan later said that by the end, they were running on adrenaline and stubbornness.

How Did the Flight End?

On the morning of December 23, 1986, Voyager descended toward Edwards Air Force Base. The flight had covered 24,986 miles in nine days, three minutes, and forty-four seconds. Dick set her down on the lakebed, the chase planes broke off overhead, and the crowd ran toward the airplane.

The record they had claimed was specific and permanent. Pilots had been circumnavigating the globe since the 1920s, and the U.S. Air Force’s B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II had completed a nonstop circumnavigation in 1949 - but with aerial refueling. Nobody had ever done it nonstop and unrefueled in a single airframe. Dick and Jeana had.

President Ronald Reagan awarded both pilots the Presidential Citizens Medal. The Collier Trophy followed.

Where Is Voyager Today, and Why Does This Record Still Stand?

After the flight, Voyager was ferried to Washington, D.C., and installed in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it hangs today alongside the Wright Flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis.

Most aviation records eventually fall. Somebody finds a better route, a better material, a better engine. This one is different. The nonstop, unrefueled, single-airframe circumnavigation was claimed by Voyager in 1986 and has never been replicated in the same configuration. The slot is filled, and it belongs to Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager permanently.

Burt Rutan retired from Scaled Composites in 2011 having designed 46 aircraft. Jeana Yeager co-authored a firsthand account of the flight, also titled Voyager, which remains the most detailed record of those nine days. Dick Rutan continues to fly.

The Wright Flyer traveled 120 feet in 1903. Eighty-three years later, a homebuilt composite airplane flew 24,986 miles without stopping. That compression - one century, from Kitty Hawk to the ceiling of the Smithsonian - is what Voyager represents.

Key Takeaways

• Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager completed the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of Earth on December 23, 1986, after nine days, three minutes, and forty-four seconds in the air.
• Voyager was designed by Burt Rutan from a napkin sketch in 1981 and took six years to build, constructed almost entirely from composite materials.
• At takeoff, 72 percent of Voyager’s 9,694-pound gross weight was aviation fuel - so much that the wingtip extensions dragged the runway and broke off before the aircraft even left the ground.
• The flight survived a Pacific typhoon deviation, a complete front-engine failure over Africa, and nine days of extreme fatigue in a cockpit measuring 7.5 by 3.5 feet.
• Voyager now hangs in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The record it set has never been replicated.