Beijing: A 57-year-old Chinese man has completed second around the world flight trip after flying for 68 days with 50 stops. Zhang Bo, who kicked off his flight from the Chicago airport on April 2 and flew over 21 countries in 3 continents and over 3 oceans, with a total mileage reaching 41,000 kms, landed at the same airport on Sunday morning, the state-run Global Times reported.
Before landing, Zhang circled around a small airport 4 times at low altitude to express excitement. Earlier, Zhang made history on August 7, 2016, when he performed his first flight around the world in a propeller-driven aircraft. He landed safely on September 24 after completing the trip in 49 days.
Zhang said the challenges he faced in his second world flight trip were harder than the first one. “As the airplane I flied is piston propelled and has no pressure cabin with limited endurance and flying altitude, the challenges I encountered this time were much more than when I did the first around-the-world flight,” the report mentioned Zhang as saying.
He said the most difficult part of the flight was while flying over the Arctic area. “After taking off from Chicago, I directly flied northward into the Arctic Circle. Weather there was still cold in early April, when the ground temperature was 20°C below the zero,” he said. “I was flying at 15,000 feet, and temperature there was -50°C.”
As the small DA42 aircraft is not equipped with air conditioning system, Zhang donned a special kit called ocean commander immersion suit to keep himself warm.
