Countdown to Fossett solo jet bid
 |  The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer has a wingspan of 114 feet (35 meters). |
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 Steve Fossett 's around-the-world flight attempt.
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(CNN) -- U.S. adventurer Steve Fossett says he has last-minute nerves as he prepares an attempt on the "last great aviation record" by piloting an airplane alone around the world without refueling or stopping.
If the skies remain clear the 60-year-old former investor will take off Monday from Salina, Kansas, in the single-jet-engined Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, loaded with more than four times its own weight in fuel.
Over the 65 hours the challenge is expected to take, Fossett will fly to Europe and the Middle East, over Asia and the Pacific, and back to Kansas.
If he succeeds, he will make history but if he fails, his life is in serious danger.
The most dangerous part of the attempt is the take-off, due to take place around 6 p.m. local time (7 p.m. ET)
GlobalFlyer has never been tested with a full load of fuel and any unexpected turbulence or technical problems could spell disaster.
The project is partly sponsored by Sir Richard Branson's company Virgin and the British entrepreneur is in Kansas to wish his friend and former ballooning colleague well.
At a news conference at mission control in Kansas State University on Sunday, Fossett appeared strained as reporters' questions focused on what might happen if something went wrong.
"I suppose I am a little bit of a nervous person -- perhaps it is justified in this case," he said.
"It will be very scary to take off in a plane this heavy and the consequences of something going wrong...
"There is very little margin for things like turbulence and tail winds."
Originally scheduled to launch on February 2, unsatisfactory weather has prompted mission planners to delay the flight several times.
Fossett has already proved himself to be a modern-day Magellan, who circumnavigated the globe in 1519-21. In 2002, he became the first solo balloonist to circle the globe nonstop, despite an on-board fire and dangerous winds. Two years later, he and his crew made the fastest circumnavigation on a sailing ship -- 58 days.
Fossett holds dozens of aviation and nautical records, including the the fastest world record by non-supersonic airplane -- 742.02 mph (1,193.9 kph), Fossett's Web site states.
On the water, he and his crew in 2001 smashed the transatlantic sailing record by 43 hours, finishing in a little more than four days.
For this latest challenge, Fossett and his mission control team face a tricky triple threat: weather, sleep deprivation and conserving precious fuel.
The GlobalFlyer consists of three hulls attached to a 35-meter (114-foot) wing that measures more than half the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Twin "boom" hulls on either side of the cockpit hull each carry almost 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds) of fuel. The plane is expected to reach heights of 17,000 meters (52,000 feet) and travel at speeds in excess of 250 knots (440 kph, 285 mph).
Atop the plane's 7-foot cockpit is a single jet engine, which must propel the aircraft throughout its 40,234 km (25,000-mile) trek.
"The first solo nonstop is a grand endeavor," said Fossett. "If successful, I hope to earn a place in aviation history in the legacy of Wiley Post." In 1933, Post rounded the globe after stopping 11 times in just under eight days.
Fossett has partnered two men whose experience may be invaluable to the mission: Branson and aircraft designer Burt Rutan, whose plane Voyager launched brother Dick Rutan and co-pilot Jeana Yeager around the world without refueling in 1986.
Soloing around the globe in a plane is now "the last great aviation record left inside the Earth's atmosphere," Branson said when the mission was announced in 2003.
In fact, Branson and Rutan know something about the far reaches of the atmosphere. Last year Rutan led the first manned commercial flight to reach the edge of space and was commissioned by Branson to build a spacecraft for paying passengers -- possibly within five years.
The October flight of Rutan's SpaceShipOne won his team the $10 million X Prize, an award from a nonprofit foundation aimed at spurring civilian space flight.
The prize was offered to the first manned flight to return safely from two trips 62 miles (100 km) high into suborbital space.
