Voyager fuel OK despite storms, detours

LOS ANGELES (AP) As Voyager headed for the halfway point in itsnonstop around-the-world flight, officials early today said theexperimental plane was expected to have enough fuel despite detoursto avoid storms.

Earlier in the day, designer Burt Rutan, brother of pilot DickRutan, 48, said numerous changes in the planned route and altitudehad reduced the aircraft's fuel efficiency. He said there wasconcern the flight might not be completed.

But Voyager spokesman Larry Cansler said several hours laterthere no longer is much concern about fuel. The aircraft's frontengine was stopped after running a day longer than planned tocircumvent Indian Ocean storms.

"Voyager is running efficiently on one engine at 11,000 feet,and we expect fuel consumption to be much better on the second halfof the flight," Cansler said.

Voyager passed over Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean at 10:30 p.m.,Chicago time, yesterday, more than 11,000 miles on its 25,000-mileglobal flight. It was heading toward the southern tip of India,Cansler said.

At 10:15 a.m., pilot Rutan had radioed that Voyager was beingbuffeted by a storm over the Indian Ocean. On Tuesday, the planeflew past a typhoon to take advantage of its wind.

Larry Burch, the weather forecaster on duty, said he told Rutanto turn north and then head for Sri Lanka and the tip of India.

Burt Rutan said Voyager also deviated several times from its mostefficient altitude, which required running both forward and rearengines longer than planned. Cutoff of the forward engine had beenplanned to save fuel.

Voyager was approaching breaking two world records forlong-distance flights.

U.S. Navy Cmdr. T. D. Davies and three others set the previous"straight-line" long-distance record for piston-engine aircraft,11,235.6 miles, set 20 years ago aboard a revamped Navy bomber dubbedthe "Truculent Turtle."

Voyager officials said a more important mark is the worldabsolute straight-line distance of 12,532.2 miles set in 1962 by AirForce Maj. Clyde P. Eviely in a B-52.

Voyager completed the first third of its planned flight on theanniversary of the day the Wright brothers ushered in the era ofaviation with their historic first flight, on Dec. 17, 1903, at KittyHawk, N.C. The Voyager pilots have called their attempt to circle theglobe on one load of gas "aviation's last great adventure."

But famed test pilot Chuck Yeager, the first man to break thesound barrier, belittled the project. He compared it with "taking acar from Los Angeles and driving it to New York and putting a bigenough fuel tank in it so you don't have to stop."

"The technology in the Voyager is old technology - it's not abreakthrough," said Yeager, no relation to Voyager co-pilot JeanaYeager, 34.

Before the fuel worries, the main concern was crew fatigue.

Rutan and Yeager traded flying more regularly yesterday at theinsistence of flight surgeon Dr. George Jutila, who was concernedabout crew fatigue as the flight progressed. Rutan, 48, a former AirForce fighter pilot, had spent 12 hours guiding the plane past thefierce vortex of Typhoon Marge.

"Dick got six solid hours of sleep during the last 24-hourperiod period," Jutila said Wednesday.

The two-engine, propeller-driven plane's 109-foot wingspan islonger than a Boeing 727's, but the crew has only 43 cubic feetcabin-cockpit space, about half that of a Honda Civic auto. When onepilot sits in the 2-foot-wide cabin, the other has just enough roomto lie down.