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by Matt Rosenberg
July 14, 2002

Solo balloonist Steve Fossett landed on July 3 after an "around the world" flight in his Spirit of Freedom balloon. Unfortunately, he traveled around the earth at the approximate latitude of 44° S, making his trip far less then the minimum 24,859.82 mile circumference of our planet (around the poles). (Around the equator the maximum circumference of the earth is 24,901.55 miles.) The 40° line of latitude north or south of the equator is a mere length of 19,102.68 miles, a full 5,757 miles shorter than the true circumference!

So why the hoopla and congratulations? I'm not sure. Fossett's flight probably qualified as a "circumnavigation" under the less-stringent circumnavigation rules established by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (the World Air Sports Federation). The international governing body of aeronautics states (according to the official Spirit of Freedom Site) that a pilot's waypoints must remain 30° from the north or south pole to qualify as a circumnavigation. According to Fossett's own logs, he spent over twelve hours south of 60° south (the 60° line of latitude is really short, a "circumnavigation" along that parallel would only require 12,482.64 miles of travel.)

Fossett's site provides rectangular equatorial projection maps of his trip. To the novice, his route appears "around the world" to a novice but look at his route on a globe or on the polar map on the site. Not quite what geographers would call a circumnavigation.

Steve Fossett's solo balloon trip was definitely impressive and an amazing feat. However, is was not a trip "around the world" but, more correctly, a trip "along the 40° south parallel." Throughout his trip Fossett never traveled farther north than 30.1451°S.