Yesterday, Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo around the world without refueling. With all due respect to Mr. Fossett, however, the record belongs more to technology than to the man.

When Charles Linbergh spanned the Atlantic solo without refueling, he did it on a budget of $15,000, and with only radio communication with the ground. He spanned the Atlantic in approximately 33.5 hours.

Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager's pioneer around the world flight,the first without refueling, was better budgeted and obviously had vastly improved technology to its advantage than Lindy's flight, but still ground communications were limited and the more remedial knowledge of weather patterns made flight predictions more difficult.

Steve Fossett, on the other hand, was assisted by every gift technology could offer him. An advanced autopilot system made possible less than full attentiveness during the course of the 67 hour flight, and countless monitors and gauges made a ground crew capable of making decisions that Fossett would have been unable to make himself, especially in his sleep deprived condition in the later hours of the flight. Fossett was, in many ways, the "supporting actor", the plane and designer Burt Rutan (a true aviation genius, in my estimation) were the stars.