A highly successful investor, businessman and adventurer, Steve Fossett's risk taking personality led him to break a large number of world records, many of those in aviation. He is credited with setting 116 new world records, or world firsts, in five sports. Gossett flew balloons, airships, gliders and powered aircraft to 91 aviation world records, of which 36 still stand. Born in Jackson, Tennessee, Fossett grew up in Garden Grove, California, Active as an Eagle Scout, Fossett initiated his life as an adventurer by climbing California mountains. Fossett said Scouting was the most important activity of his youth. He received an economics degree from Stanford University in 1966, and, in 1968, an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St Louis. He spent the summer of 1966 climbing mountains and swimming the Dardanelles. Fossett enjoyed endurance sport challenges, including the 100-mile Canadian Ski Marathon, climbing the highest peaks throughout the word, swimming the English Channel and competing in the Alaskan Iditarod dog race. However, Fossett's most memorable accomplishments would be attained in the sky. In 2002 he became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon, traveling 19,428 miles in two weeks. But it was only the beginning of his aviation accomplishments. Just three years later, changing his mode of air travel, Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world without refueling, flying the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, spanning 23,000 miles in 67 hours. And, in February 2006, he achieved the ultimate aviation challenge by smashing the record for flying further than anyone in history. His quest continued, and shortly after, in August of the same year, he co-piloted his glider to a record 50,722 feet, the first engineless aircraft to reach that altitude. Unfortunately, the world of aviation was shocked when Steve Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007, shortly after taking off for what was expected to be a brief flight in a single-engine Bellanca Super Decathlon from a private ranch in Yerington, Nevada. He never returned, and the largest air and ground search in American history failed to find him. The crash site was eventually located a year later in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, near Mammoth Lakes, California.
Inducted in 2010.
Portrait Location: Modern Jet

Induction Video