Re: could a plane fly nonstop around the earth passing over both poles

Hello Dan: Even with limited funding it is quite feasible to do so. Many 
aircraft hold records of speed and altitude going around the earth. A 
conventional gasoline powered aircraft was designed by the Rutan brothers 
in Mojave, CA, USA some years back and went around the globe with fuel 
left over. In fact, since the earth is not flat, flights in excess of few 
hundreds of miles follow the “great circle” route since it is the shortest 
distance around a curved surface like earth. By the way, there’s no 
vertical north/south. No uphill or down hill as far as earth coordinates 
are concerned. The confusion comes from the way earth is presented in the 
form of a globe with north being “up” and south “down”. Therefore, there 
are no fuel savings by flying east west or north south except for bucking 
the “jet stream”. The jet stream flows east to west at altitudes above 
25,000 ft in the Northern Hemisphere and in the opposite direction in the 
Southern Hemisphere. This is due to the Coriollis effect caused by the 
earth’s spin about its own axis. Look up http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may96/827265831.Es.r.html 
also http://encarta.msn.com/find/search.asp?search=coriolis&x=15&y=13

Here is an excerpt documenting Voyager: 

“In December 1986 the ultralight experimental aircraft Voyager 
successfully completed the first nonstop around-the-world flight without 
refueling. Voyager was designed by Burt Rutan in an unorthodox H shape 
with outrigger booms and rudders. The aircraft had two engines: one engine 
in front for takeoffs, landings, and maneuvering; the other in back for in-
flight power. Composed mostly of lightweight plastic composite materials, 
the plane weighed only 4420 kg (9750 lb) at takeoff—with 4500 liters (1200 
gallons) of fuel in its 17 fuel tanks—and 840 kg (1858 lb) on landing. 
Pilots Dick Rutan, Burt's brother, and Jeana Yeager flew 40,254 km (25,012 
mi) in 9 days, 3 min, 44 sec at an average speed of 186.3 km/h (115.8 
mph), establishing a distance and endurance record. The previous distance 
record of 20,169 km (12,532 mi) was set in 1962.”

Your MAD.SCI Micro