Steve Fossett

Steve Fossett
Fossett in September 2002
Born	James Stephen Fossett (1944-04-22)April 22, 1944 Jackson, Tennessee, U.S.
Died	September 3, 2007(2007-09-03) (aged 63) Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Plane crash
Alma mater	Washington University in St. Louis (MBA) Stanford University (BA) Garden Grove High School
Known for	setting a large number of world records as an adventurer, sailor and aviator
Spouse	Peggy Viehland

James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – September 3, 2007) was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and held world records for five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.

A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Explorers Club, Fossett set more than one hundred records^{[verification needed]} in five different sports, sixty of which still stood at the time of his death. He broke three of the seven absolute world records for fixed-wing aircraft recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, all in his Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.^[1] In 2002, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club of the UK,^[2] and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2007.

Fossett disappeared on September 3, 2007, while flying a light aircraft over the Great Basin Desert, between Nevada and California. Fossett's plane was discovered wrecked in 2008.