The Voyager, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, and the Last Great Aviation First

On December 23, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager touched down at Edwards Air Force Base after 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds in the air - completing the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the globe. They landed with 107 pounds of fuel remaining out of the 11,200 pounds loaded at departure. The age of aviation firsts ended that morning over the California desert.

What Was the Voyager Aircraft?

The Voyager was designed by Burt Rutan, one of the most unconventional aircraft designers in American aviation history. By the early 1980s, Rutan had already built a reputation on canard pusher designs - aircraft where a small horizontal stabilizer sat out front and the propeller pushed from behind - constructed from fiberglass and composite materials rather than aluminum.

The Voyager was his answer to a question that had sat unanswered since Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic in 1927: could a propeller aircraft fly all the way around the world without stopping, without taking on a single drop of fuel? Most serious engineers concluded no. Rutan concluded yes, and in 1981 he started drawing.

How Was the Voyager Built?

The aircraft that emerged was unlike anything that had flown before. Its main wing stretched 111 feet tip to tip - wider than a Boeing 737 - yet the entire airframe weighed just 939 pounds empty. The fuselage was a narrow central pod, barely large enough for two people. Two slender outrigger booms connected the main wing to a smaller canard wing forward, forming the distinctive configuration visible in every photograph.

The structure was built not from aluminum or steel but from graphite fiber and paper honeycomb composite - layers of material baked into precise forms, remarkably strong for their weight. Every internal void held fuel. The wings, the fuselage, the booms - 17 separate tanks connected by a plumbing system that required active management throughout the flight to keep the center of gravity within limits.

At takeoff, the Voyager carried 11,200 pounds of fuel against an airframe weight of 939 pounds. More than 70 percent of everything in the air was avgas. Loaded on the ramp, the wingtips sagged visibly toward the concrete. Engineers had calculated they would flex upward by nearly six feet once aerodynamic lift took hold.

The project cost nearly $2 million, raised over years through donations and sponsorships. The aircraft was built largely by volunteers who believed in what the team was attempting, working by hand in a Mojave Desert hangar over five years.

Who Were Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager?

Dick Rutan flew 105 combat missions over Vietnam in the F-100 Super Sabre - the aircraft crews called the Hun. After the Air Force, he became a test pilot for Burt’s company, Scaled Composites, and one of the finest air show aerobatic pilots in the country. In 1986 Dick was 50 years old, with the kind of calm earned rather than inherited.

Jeana Yeager - no relation to Chuck Yeager, a question she answered countless times - was a licensed pilot and engineer who had been the organizing force behind the entire Voyager project from the start. She helped design the fuel systems, managed construction, coordinated the volunteer workforce, and trained alongside Dick for every phase of the mission. This was not a supporting role. Jeana Yeager was half the crew of one of the most demanding flights in aviation history.

The Takeoff: December 14, 1986

At 8:08 AM on December 14, 1986, Dick Rutan advanced the throttles at Edwards Air Force Base. The runway at Edwards is 15,000 feet long. They would need most of it.

As the aircraft accelerated, the wings - bent downward by the weight of 11,000 pounds of fuel - began flexing upward, but not fast enough. Both wingtips dragged the runway. The left winglet, a small vertical stabilizing fin that had already been repaired once during testing, scraped the concrete and tore away. A chase pilot radioed immediately. Dick acknowledged. He had not felt it in the aircraft. He kept the throttles forward.

The Voyager rotated and lifted off. Both winglets were gone, left behind on the runway. Engineers assessed whether the aircraft could maintain directional stability for a nine-day flight. Dick climbed to altitude and flew test maneuvers. The aircraft was manageable - reduced stability, but flyable. The decision was made to continue.

The Route: 25,000 Miles of Ocean and Earth

The Voyager flew west over the Pacific, staying low to catch the trade winds, south of Hawaii, across open ocean to the Philippines, through the Indian Ocean, around the tip of Africa, across the South Atlantic, and north back toward California. Approximately 25,000 miles, every one of them on fuel loaded at Edwards.

The cockpit was 6.5 feet long and roughly 3 feet wide. Two seats - one fore, one aft - with a small sleeping area in the rear where one crew member could rest while the other flew. They traded shifts, managed the fuel system, ate cold food from pouches, and communicated with mission control by radio. Average cruising speed was approximately 120 miles per hour.

Fatigue set in by the second day and never left. Dick developed a bruise on his elbow from bracing against the armrest to hold the controls in rough air. The autopilot required constant human supervision in turbulence.

The Crises That Nearly Ended the Flight

Day 4, east of the Philippines: Typhoon Marge.

A commercial crew would reroute, burning the extra fuel to go around it. Dick Rutan had 17 tanks calculated to the last pound against a 25,000-mile route. He did not have extra fuel. The Voyager went through the typhoon. The turbulence was severe, and Jeana later described watching the instruments show behavior she had never seen in testing. Dick flew it manually through the worst of it, reading the air ahead, making constant corrections, keeping the fuel balanced and the nose pointed forward. They came out the other side.

Day 6, over the Indian Ocean: a fuel pump quit.

One of the pumps transferring fuel from a forward tank to the main supply went silent. Without it, approximately 2,000 pounds of fuel were effectively unreachable - more than a quarter of what remained. If that fuel could not be recovered, the flight was over. They would not reach California.

Dick Rutan, six days into a nine-day mission, running on interrupted sleep in a space smaller than a coat closet, diagnosed the problem over the open ocean and got the pump running again. He said later it was the most frightening moment of the entire flight - not the takeoff with the wingtips dragging, not the typhoon. The moment he thought the fuel might be unrecoverable.

The Landing: December 23, 1986

55,000 people had gathered on the dry lakebed at Edwards. After nine days, three continents, two oceans, a typhoon, and a fuel system failure, the Voyager touched down on December 23, 1986.

Dick could barely walk. His joints were swollen. He and Jeana had each lost more than 10 pounds. When they climbed out onto the ramp, the crowd noise was the kind you feel in your chest.

The Voyager had landed with 107 pounds of fuel remaining - out of 11,200 loaded at departure. The margin between completing the last great aviation first and running dry over the Pacific was measured in minutes.

Where Is the Voyager Now?

The Voyager was donated to the Smithsonian Institution and hangs today in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., alongside the Wright Flyer and Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis.

Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Burt Rutan continued designing aircraft that redefined what was considered structurally and aerodynamically possible.

Why This Flight Still Matters

The Voyager closed the last chapter of the era of aviation firsts. The first powered flight, the first solo Atlantic crossing, the first supersonic flight - each of those doors closed permanently once someone walked through it. The Voyager closed the final one.

Everything that followed has been refinement and technology, which matter enormously. But the age of doing something for the very first time in the air ended on a California morning in December 1986. What the Voyager crew demonstrated - particularly on day six over the Indian Ocean - was not courage in the dramatic, singular sense. It was the grinding, quiet kind: the kind where the mission is unfinished, and so you diagnose the problem, and get back to flying.

Key Takeaways

The Voyager, designed by Burt Rutan, completed the first nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation of the globe on December 23, 1986, flown by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager
At takeoff, more than 70% of the aircraft’s total weight was fuel - 11,200 pounds against a 939-pound airframe
The crew survived two winglets tearing off during the takeoff roll, Typhoon Marge on day four, and a critical fuel pump failure on day six over the Indian Ocean
The flight lasted 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds, covering approximately 25,000 miles, landing with just 107 pounds of fuel remaining
The Voyager hangs in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the National Air and Space Museum, alongside the Wright Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis