| To fly around the world is at once a big adventure and a great achievement. Trying to achieve this with a tiny, 450 kg fully-loaded aircraft is even more daring. Until now only a few pilots had flown this distance under similar conditions. Microlight aircraft are, in general, relatively slow and therefore more sensitive to wind and turbulence. These aircraft are handicapped by having only a short range due to the small amounts of fuel on board, so they need more thorough and frequent pit stop landings. This, together with weather factors, can easily lead to severe problems.
 To date, no one has rounded the globe in a microlight aircraft without a co-pilot and without airborne support. The pilot has to rely entirely on himself/herself when flying over wild and hostile forests, over the rough terrain of Alaska and Canada and over freezing Arctic seas without the possibility of landing. He has to battle the weather, winds, his own fears, and illusions that sometimes can cause panic and irrational behavior.
Pipistrel Sinus 912 is the first microlight motorglider with very low fuel consumption and a good glide ratio of 1:28. This will help overfly or overglide large distances with a relatively small amount of fuel. An around-the-world flight is basically the same challenge to the pilot and to the organisers of the entire project.
What makes Wings Forever so special?
- Duration of daily flights (8 to 15 hours in small aircraft).
- Long oversea flights:
| Kaspian sea: 230 km |
| China-Korea: 350 km |
| Japan-Kamchatka (Russia): 1100 km |
| Kamchatka-Shemya (Aleut):990 km |
| Shemya-Cold Bay (Alaska): 1145 km |
| Iqualit - Greenland: 480 km |
| Greenland - Island 760 km |
| Island - Great Britain: 850 km |
- Large non-populated areas (Kazakhstan, China, Alaska, Canada, Greenland) with no landing possibilities.
- Possible ice-accumulation on flying aircraft (mostly over parts of Kamchatka, Alaska, Baffin Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands).
- Polar fog in polar regions.
- Strong headwinds, turbulence, unstable weather.
All interested parties can take the co-pilot's perspective from their homes and enjoy the adventure live over the internet and other media. |
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