Our First-Ever Dateline from Salina, Kansas

He made it:

Solo pilot Steve Fossett has completed a daring bid to circumnavigate the globe in a single flight, overcoming a fuel scare and extreme fatigue.

The GlobalFlyer aircraft touched down just before 1:50 p.m. local time Thursday in Salina, Kan. (11:50 a.m. PT), where its journey had begun two days earlier.

Fossett’s goal was to complete the mission in 80 hours–and to make aviation history with the first solo nonstop flight around the world. Less than four hours after takeoff, however, there was an early threat of failure when the plane’s fuel tank registered a 2,600-pound loss of fuel.

Now that’s cool.