Expedition Global Eagle - History

History

The autogyro is the last remaining type of aircraft which has not a yet been used to circumnavigate the globe. The expedition was the first attempt ever to fly an autogyro around the Earth, a trip of about 25,000 miles (40,000 km). In February 2003, a year before the circumnavigation attempt, the Global Eagle broke the world range record by flying non-stop from Culdrose in Cornwall to Wick in Scotland, a total of 580 miles (928 km), after a flight lasting 7 hours and 23 minutes, breaking the old record of either 543.27 statute miles (874.32 km) or 869.23 km (540.11 mi) held by Wing Commander Ken Wallis. During the record-breaking trip Jones drifted toward North America due to a broken radio, before finally correcting the course. While flying over Wales he had to fly over the clouds in the open cockpit of the autogyro. He also flew for approximately 50 miles (80 km) over the North Sea which, as he acknowledged during an interview, was a dangerous course due to the fact the autogyro only had one engine and therefore in case it cut-off there would be no alternative solution but to crash land in the water. The average flight altitude was 4,000 ft and the average speed was 70 mph. In 2004, Jones, a Lynx helicopter pilot, was one of 75 licensed autogyro pilots in the UK. Later in 2003 the original Eagle suffered an accident during landing.

The circumnavigation attempt trip commenced on 26 April 2004 under the patronage of General Sir Michael Walker, Chief of Defence Staff of the British Armed Forces and it was supposed to last about three and a half months. The autogyro flight was to have touched down in twenty five countries with frequent landings due to the limited range of the autogyro. The Global Eagle's route was planned to approximately follow the flightpath taken by Brian Milton in 1998 when he became the first person to circumnavigate the globe using a microlight. Due to technical difficulties with the original gyrocopter the gyro at launch was supplied by the Italian manufacturer Magni Gyro which also supplied spare parts and technical assistance to the expedition. The new gyro featured a new colour scheme and the eagle logo was not used.

The expedition successfully completed the European leg of the journey which included Oostende, Belgium, Friedrichshafen, Germany, the Alps, Bolzano, Trento, Casaleggio Novara, the location of the Magni airfield in Italy, Forlì, Pescara, Bari, Italy, Corfu, Athens, Mykonos, Kos and Rhodes, in Greece and the military base of Akrotiri in Cyprus, albeit with delays. The journey through the Alps was very difficult because Jones had to climb to 10,000 feet over the Alps where it was extremely windy. Jones also had to make a forced landing in the Italian Alps. Also the trip from Athens to Akrotiri over the Mediterranean proved very frightening because flying over the water, with only a few ships below, meant that it would be very difficult to get any help in case of a mishap. From Akrotiri, Global Eagle went to Amman, Jordan, Turaif, Saudi Arabia, Arar, Hafr Al-Batin, Qaisumah, Jubail, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi in the Arab Emirates and Muscat, Oman.

Over Jordan and Saudi Arabia, Jones had to fly over the desert for hours and to battle sandstorms and hot weather at low altitudes while at higher altitudes it would become very cold. Further, communication was impossible while flying over the desert because of a lack of ground stations and the atmospheric conditions prevailing in the area. While there, Jones had to communicate with commercial aircraft flying over the desert which would then relay his messages to the ground stations at the local airports. A Saudia flight helped him approach and land at Turaif.

Subsequently Jones arrived at Abu Dhabi and from there he flew to Muscat, Oman and then Gawadar and Ormara in Pakistan and, finally, Karachi. The flight from Muscat to Karachi broke the record for the longest flight over water by an autogyro and lasted six hours.

From Karachi, Jones flew the autogyro to India where it navigated to Ahmedabad, Udaipur, Jaipur, New Delhi, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Patna and Baghdogra, sometimes through sandstorms, and finally landed during monsoon rains in the army base of Guwahati. The delays incurred in the European leg of the journey proved damaging to the effort because Jones was forced to arrive in India during monsoon season. The monsoons he encountered were the worst in 20 years with 100 people killed in the Guwahati area alone. The technical difficulties encountered in India, due to the weather, led to the downgrading of the purpose of the mision from circumnavigating the globe to flying to Australia.

Jones and his support team then returned to the UK in order to revise the plans for the truncated trip to Australia. Upon returning to India they discovered that the gyro while at the army base of Guwahati had spent time submerged in water. The transponder, the radio and the rest of the instruments were damaged. As well, the flying controls and the cables needed to be replaced. The damage totalled BP₤10,000 and could not be raised on time. In addition the team members, being soldiers, had to return to active duty by early 2005. This led to the attempt being abandoned. The trip when cancelled had covered between 6,550–7,500 miles (10,480–12,100 km) and had lasted for four months due to the delays experienced, averaging approximately 350 miles per flight day. Even though the expedition did not succeed in its goal of circumnavigating the globe it demonstrated the wide range of conditions under which a light, open-cockpit autogyro could operate.