Sir Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson is one of Britain’s best known entrepreneurs and has a passion for adventure. The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer attempt to become the first solo, non-stop, non-refuelled, jet-powered circumnavigation of the world is just the latest in a series of record breaking attempts that Sir Richard and his company have been involved in. He was keen to support this fun and exciting project, saying that it is the last great aviation record to be broken. Sir Richard felt that Burt Rutan designed one of the most beautiful planes that he had ever seen.

Although Sir Richard has admitted to being an adrenaline junkie, he was keen to stress that he was very much the reserve pilot for the GlobalFlyer project. His previous record-breaking attempts have given him the experience and endurance training needed for this flight, but he was happy that outstanding aviator Steve Fossett would be the one at the controls when GlobalFlyer took off.

Sir Richard launched Virgin Atlantic in 1984, but owning a fleet of aeroplanes obviously wasn’t enough for the entrepreneur; he wanted to become a world-beating adventurer as well. For the past 20 years Sir Richard has successfully combined thrill-seeking with promoting the Virgin brand by being involved in some truly record-breaking projects. The idea was that because the company had a limited marketing budget, the best way to promote the new airline would be for Sir Richard to attempt to break various World Records, both in the air and on the sea, under the Virgin name. This strategy has obviously paid off and put Virgin Atlantic firmly on the map because it is now Britain’s second largest long-haul international airline.

In 1986, the Virgin Atlantic Challenger II crossed the Atlantic in record time. The following year, Sir Richard crossed the same ocean, this time in the largest balloon ever built, the Virgin Atlantic Flyer, which had a capacity of 2.3 million cubic feet and could travel over 130mph (209kmph). It made history as it was the first time a balloon had successfully crossed the Atlantic. In 1991, Sir Richard went even further by crossing the Pacific in a balloon that travelled at speeds in excess of 245mph (394kmph), breaking all existing records.

Between 1995 and 1998, Sir Richard made a number of attempts to travel around the world by balloon with Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett. Although the team did break records flying from Morocco to Hawaii, they were eventually thwarted in their attempt to circumnavigate the globe by bad weather and in 1999 another team beat them to it.

On 3rd March 2004, Sir Richard was on the tarmac at Salina, Kansas, to greet Steve Fossett when he landed after his amazing 67 hour flight. He showered the GlobalFlyer team with praise and showered its victorious pilot in champagne!