American billionaire and adventurer, a record-breaking aviator, balloonist and sailor, accomplished mountain-climber, tri-athlete and swimmer. With 116 record-setting achievements to his name, Fossett was the first person to fly a solo, nonstop flight around the world, a trip financed by Virgin Atlantic’s founder Richard Branson. Taking off from Salina, Kansas on Monday, February 28, 2005, Fossett landed at 2:49 PM ET (according to CNN) on March 3, 2005 at the same airfield. He had spent 67 hours in the air. By 2005 he had racked up world records in five sports – balloons, sailboats, gliders, airships and powered aircraft.
Among the aviation records he holds is his feat as first solo balloonist to circumnavigate the world in a balloon. He set the record on July 4, 2002 after completing the 13-day, 12-hour and five-minute trip on which he achieved record speed and set the record for distance traveled in a single day. The trip marked his sixth attempt to fly around the world in a balloon.
Fossett has more than ten world records for flight, including a record for the number of transcontinental flights in the US and Australia. At 742 miles per hour, he achieved the fastest speed ever for a non-supersonic plane, and he and a partner set nine records for gliders. In 2006 he set yet another record, this time for the longest non-stop flight in history.
His records set on water are just as impressive. Since 1993, he has set 21 world records for sailing, 14 of which still stand in 2005, and nine distance race records, eight of which he still holds in 2005. In October 2001, Steve and his team crossed the Atlantic in a record 4 days, 17 hours. On April 5, 2004 at about 4:00 PM BST, he completed the fastest circumnavigation of the world by sailboat.
In addition to swimming the English Channel, he’s competed in the Iron Man Triathlon, driven in the grueling “24 hours of Le Mans” twice, scaled mountain summits on six out of seven continents, run the Boston Marathon and completed the Iditarod dog race in Alaska.
Fossett has a long list of honors and awards to his name. In 2002, he received the prestigious Gold Medal of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). Upon his induction the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007, he said, “I’m hoping you didn’t give me this award because you think my career is complete, because I’m not done.”
Fossett said he was not a natural team-sport athlete as a child but found that he could excel in individual endeavors like running and mountain climbing, sports that required endurance and persistence. Growing up in California, he became an accomplished mountain climber by the time he entered college. With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Fossett started his career at IBM in New York City. He and his wife, Peggy Viehland, whom he had married in 1968, moved to Chicago a few years later. He left his job in computer systems and became a stockbroker specializing in options trading.
Fossett found his niche in the financial services industry and his career took off. With his first million under his belt, he started his own options trading company, Lakota Trading in 1980, a lucrative move. His next company, Marathon Securities added to his wealth. “Both pursuits require a competitiveness,” he says. “As a floor trader, I was very aggressive and worked hard. Those same traits help me in adventure sports.” One interviewer said that Fossett “ate determination for breakfast.” When asked about his motivation for driving himself so hard, Fossett responded, “I’m doing these things for personal accomplishment, not the thrills. I don’t do these things because I have a death wish.” His wife Peggy has supported his choices throughout their marriage although she is described as risk-averse, home-loving, “practical and private.”
Even at age 63, Fossett had no plans to retire. He once said “I imagine that when I’m 80 years old and sitting in a wheelchair that I might do something like take a remote control airplane and try and fly it around the world. I plan to be setting and breaking records indefinitely.” His plans will evidently not materialize. On September 3, 2007 at 8:45 AM local time, he took off in a light single-engine plane from magnate Barron Hilton’s ranch near Yerington, NV. He was scouting for a new site from which to set a new land-speed record. He never returned. An exhaustive search has turned up no trace of the record-setting adventurer or the plane. On November 26, 2007, his wife Peggy asked a court to declare him dead. On February 15, 2008, a judge complied with his wife’s request and ruled that the the death is official. Some of Fossett’s personal effects (identification and some cash and clothing) were found by a hiker on October 2, 2008 and his body was located soon after.
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