Voyager, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, and the Nine Days They Flew Around the World Without Stopping or Taking On a Drop of Fuel

In December 1986, the experimental aircraft Voyager became the first airplane to fly nonstop around the world without refueling, a feat many believed impossible. Piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and designed by Burt Rutan, the flight covered roughly 25,000 miles in 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds, landing with less than 100 pounds of usable fuel remaining. It remains one of the last great “firsts” in the history of powered flight.

What Was the Voyager Aircraft?

Voyager did not look like any conventional airplane. It had two long, skinny booms and a wingspan of about 111 feet - wider than a Boeing 727 - yet the empty airframe weighed less than 1,900 pounds.

The aircraft was built almost entirely of graphite composite, honeycomb, and epoxy, layered by hand. It was so light and flexible that the wingtips would flap and bend like a gull’s wings in flight.

Most of the machine was essentially one thing: fuel storage. Seventeen fuel tanks were tucked into every hollow space in the airframe. The goal was singular - to fly all the way around the world nonstop, without taking on a single drop of fuel from takeoff to landing.

How Did the Voyager Project Begin?

The idea started, as many great aviation stories do, on a napkin. In 1981, Dick Rutan, his brother Burt Rutan, and Dick’s flying partner Jeana Yeager (no relation to Chuck Yeager) sat at lunch discussing the last great unclaimed record in aviation.

By the 1980s, nearly everything had been done. Pilots had crossed the Atlantic, flown around the world with stops, broken the sound barrier, and reached the moon. But no one had ever flown an airplane around the planet without landing and without refueling. Every previous round-the-world flight had stopped for gas.

Burt Rutan was one of the most original aircraft designers in American history - the man behind the VariEze homebuilt and, later, the aircraft that won the X Prize. He approached the problem as an engineer. To fly roughly 25,000 miles nonstop, the airplane needed to carry an enormous amount of fuel, which meant it had to be extraordinarily light and efficient - capable of carrying more than its own weight in gasoline and still getting airborne.

How Much Did Voyager Weigh at Takeoff?

When Voyager rolled out fully loaded, it weighed about 9,700 pounds. Of that, over 7,000 pounds was fuel - meaning the airplane was more than 70% gasoline by weight. It was, effectively, a flying fuel tank with a pilot in the front.

The aircraft was built in Mojave over roughly five years, mostly by volunteers and on almost no money. There was no government program, no Air Force contract, and no corporate backing - just a small team laying up composite by hand. Jeana Yeager did an enormous amount of that composite work herself; she was involved from the very first cut.

What Were the Living Conditions Inside Voyager?

The cabin was about 7.5 feet long and just over 2 feet wide - for two people, for nine days. The crew could not stand up or sit up straight.

One person flew while half-reclined in the left seat, while the other tried to rest in a space smaller than a coffin, pressed against the roar of the rear engine. There was no meaningful autopilot at the start, no galley, no bunk, and no real bathroom. The crew ate from packages, drank water, and prepared to be miserable for well over a week.

Voyager had two engines - one pulling in front, one pushing in back. For most of the flight, the crew shut down the front engine to save fuel and flew on the rear engine alone: a liquid-cooled Continental that had to keep running for the entire trip.

What Happened During the Takeoff?

On the morning of December 14, 1986, the crew loaded Voyager full of fuel at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. Under that fuel load, the long, flexible wings drooped so far that the wingtips - which extended past the main landing gear - sagged down and dragged on the runway.

On the takeoff roll, both wingtips scraped the concrete before the wings generated enough lift to curl them upward. Voyager used more than 14,000 feet of the 15,000-foot runway before staggering into the air.

The dragging had damaged the small winglets on the wingtips. One of the first tasks, airborne over the desert, was to maneuver hard and snap off the damaged tips so they wouldn’t cause problems - breaking pieces off the airplane on purpose within the first hour of a nine-day flight.

What Dangers Did the Crew Face in Flight?

An airplane this light and fragile was at the mercy of the weather. A thunderstorm wouldn’t just bounce Voyager around - it could tear the aircraft apart. The route ran west over the Pacific, down toward the equator, across Africa, across the Atlantic, over Central America, and back to California - directly through some of the most violent weather on Earth, including the intertropical convergence zone where enormous storms build up like walls.

A team back in Mojave monitored weather and radioed guidance to thread the aircraft between storm cells. Off the coast of Africa, rather than fleeing a typhoon named Marge, the crew tucked into its outer edge and used the storm’s circulation to gain a tailwind and a push.

Somewhere over Africa, weather rolled the airplane onto its side - nearly 90 degrees of bank - at night, in the clouds. Dick Rutan wrestled it back. In an aircraft with wings that flex like a bird’s, sudden violent inputs could fold the structure, so he had to be firm and gentle at once, exhausted, with the storm trying to flip them over.

Fatigue was relentless. This was nine days of noise, vibration, cramped muscles, fumes, and fear, with the crew taking turns at the controls, never truly sleeping, and both losing weight. Dick Rutan flew the vast majority of the flight himself, because the aircraft was so difficult to hand off in rough air.

The Engine Failure That Nearly Ended the Flight

Near the end of the flight, coming up the west coast of Mexico toward home, the rear engine - which had run faithfully for days - suddenly quit. Fuel had stopped feeding to it properly.

The crew still had the front engine, but it had been shut down for days, was cold, and did not want to start. Out of thrust, Voyager began descending through the darkness toward the ocean while Dick worked the restart and Jeana worked the fuel system.

The aircraft dropped roughly 3,000 to 4,000 feet before the front engine finally caught and pulled them out of the dive - coming that close to ending in the Pacific within sight of home, after five years of building and eight days of flying.

How Did the Voyager Flight End?

On December 23, 1986 - 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds after those wingtips scraped off the Mojave runway - Voyager returned over Edwards Air Force Base. It had flown about 25,000 miles all the way around the world.

Voyager landed on the same dry lakebed with, by some accounts, less than 100 pounds of usable fuel remaining out of the roughly 7,000 pounds it started with. It came home nearly bone dry.

When the cabin was opened, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager were gaunt, stiff, and drained - but they had accomplished the one thing left in aviation that no one had ever done: around the world, nonstop and unrefueled, for the first time in history.

Where Is Voyager Today?

Voyager hangs today in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in the main central gallery near the Spirit of St. Louis, the Bell X-1, and the Wright Flyer. Visitors can look up and see it right where it belongs.

That flight closed a chapter that began with two bicycle mechanics on a beach in North Carolina. Years later, Steve Fossett flew a Rutan-designed jet solo around the world nonstop - but Fossett had a turbofan engine and better tools, building on what Voyager had already proven. Dick Rutan, Jeana Yeager, and Burt Rutan did it first, with a piston engine and a hand-laid composite airframe built by volunteers in a desert hangar. In aviation, proving that something is possible is most of the whole game.

Key Takeaways

Voyager was the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled, completing the journey in 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds in December 1986.
The aircraft was piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager and designed by Burt Rutan, built by volunteers in Mojave over about five years.
At takeoff on December 14, 1986, Voyager weighed about 9,700 pounds, more than 70% of it fuel, and used over 14,000 feet of runway to get airborne.
The flight covered roughly 25,000 miles through violent tropical weather and survived a near-fatal engine failure off Mexico, landing on December 23, 1986 with less than 100 pounds of fuel to spare.
Voyager now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum, marking one of aviation’s last great “firsts.”