Voyager

by Jeana Yeager, Phil Patton

The two pilots who flew "Voyager" non-stop around the world recount their early lives and careers and detail the planning, building, testing and heroic flight of the history-making aircraft

Genres: Aviation, Travel, Adventure

557 pages, Hardcover

First published November 12, 1987

Reviews

[Peter Tillman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book and a great adventure. Two techies, both rebounding from failed marriages, meet in California. Almost on a whim, at the prompting of aircraft designer Bert Rutan (Dick's brother), they start the project: to fly around the world without refueling. They start building the aircraft on a shoestring, on $100 donations and with Burt's and his company's help. They fight with each other. Dick fights with Burt. Somehow, they build the plane, test it, work through the many problems of a hand-made, one-off design. Dick comes to hate and fear the aircraft -- a barely-flyable, grossly-uncomfortable machine. They suffer through 4 1/2 days of flying 12,000 miles nonstop, in loops off the Calif. Coast.

On the strength of this record-breaking flight, they get more support, fix the problems, take off around the world in late 1986. Weather and airplane fight them the whole way. They fix the mechanicals as best they can and forge on, nonstop for just over 9 days and 26,366 miles aloft. They make a triumphant return to Edwards AFB just before Christmas, 1986.

Then they go on the road to raise the $400,000 or so they needed to pay off their debts. And write this book. Which I can't recommend too highly. Amazing aircraft, and story.

More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_V...

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as books about aviation achievements go, this one steals the show. It starts out with autobiographies for all those involved, some of which are big personalities. I found myself getting sucked into this story chapter after chapter. And like any good adventure, it has a great ending.

From a technical standpoint, the writing style is pretty interesting. Although ghost-written by Phil Patton, it switches back and forth between Jeana and Dick writing. And Patton uses good cues to let you know who is talking. It was neat to hear how they both dealt with the situations, with both being brutally honest.

[Richp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Viewed as a story of great engineering and piloting adventure, this is a very good book, one which aligns with my interests. The idealistic but somewhat naive remarks on cutting red tape are understandable, although they fail to consider the consequences of outside party harm. The snide remarks about dictators and "terrorists" perhaps wanting to kill a man who participated in the killing of millions of people in a war against democracy and self government might have been expected, but are harmful propaganda.

5 stars for the good stuff, minus 2 for bad attitude.

[Amber Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting but the writing style was dry, you can tell it was written by engineers. My husband and I were reading this together and read about half of the book before we decided not to finish it.

[Chris Tschirhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good chronicle of this Historical Aviation event.

[Robert Walden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Good technical and project detail about how they did it, what they did and where they were lucky!

[Caleb Eisenbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible story about regular people who used their passion and discipline to accomplish the impossible.

[Bear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book based on the first-person methodology of the story. It was not a fantastic book by any stretch, and the back/forth nature of the story was obviously one chosen to "get the book done". I have to admit, I have seen the aircraft in the National Air and Space Museum, looked at it and went "Huh". It is not what I would call an attractive aircraft, and based on the first-person descriptions on how it was hated by both pilots (Dick Rutan most of all), led me to the point it was designed to do ONE THING and it achieved that. It flew around the world on a shoestring budget. No big corporate sponsorships paid the bills, and the book was filled with how most of the effort involved on the task was convincing people with cash to part from a little of their fortune to help pay for the effort.
I was reminded early on how fundraising is the most difficult and unenviable portions of any great endeavor. After all, humans circumnavigate the globe with regularity, and aviation as a whole is taken for granted as one method of achieving such travel.
What made this trip different was speed, (Less than 100 miles per hour the entire time), and the fact they did not land and refuel once during the trip. As both pilots expressed in their notes, they would not choose to do it again, particularly in this aircraft.
For background, Voyager was hand-built by engineers who were still dealing with new materials and technology. I must remind myself frequently that I personally learned from aircraft maintainers who actively served in World War II, where composite construction was unheard of. That puts me squarely in the realm of antiquity... and since this book was written back in 1986/7 time period, I was still not even 30 years of age and was working with "cutting edge" military equipment at the time. The first composite-construction "electric jet", the F-16, was still new.
Even so, design and development of the Voyager seems particularly archaic, as today we routinely build aircraft of composite (Graphite and Epoxy) as a manner of course; back then epoxy was just a heavy, difficult medium to work in. Burt Rutan, the brains behind the design, was a pioneer in composite construction, and all the "glue and fiberglass" knowledge at the time was primitive and expensive. Using these new construction methods saved weight of the basic airframe, which allowed more fuel to be carried for the flight. This paradox was an enduring theme of the book as the operators of the aircraft (Dick and Jeana) were placing their lives at risk with all the new technology being applied.
I found the overall layout of the book familiar, as so many great ideas start out with enthusiasm and a desire to "do something and tell the story". The majority of the book was a lead-up to the actual event... and as such did a great job. The ending, however, seemed to follow what I call the "hollywood model". Build up a story, give a glimpse into the event, then "victory music, fist pumping at the end, and the Girl and boy get each other and eternal happiness after an obligatory hug and kiss with smiles all around". It's one of the reasons I don't watch many movies anymore, because "getting off the stage" is an afterthought. I was not ready for the anticlimactic ending, which was in retrospect reality. I wanted to know what happened afterwards, and how everyone fared with small but viable fame on being a world record holder.
As books go, I enjoyed the read; I learned a lot about what happened (as I noted, I was a bit busy with my own life at the time, and events such as this were sidelines in the news to me)... I can, however, recommend the book as a great step back into time. It all seems like yesterday, and truthfully it was in the scheme of things. I shall have to research the players to see how their lives have moved on. Read the book just because it's there!

[Leon Foot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read of a great adventure.

[Noreen]

Adventure Library

[Air Transport]

A beautiful study of the strength of the human spirit, the book s tells the story of and leading up to the Voyager's non-stop circumnavigation of the world.