Steve Fossett completed the world's first solo airplane flight around the world without refueling yesterday after shrugging off an apparently dangerous fuel shortage, crossing the Pacific Ocean and landing in Kansas and into aviation history.

	Charlie Riedel, Associated Press Steve Fossett, left, is congratulated by GlobalFlyer designer Jon Karkow after his successful landing at Salina Municipal Airport in Salina, Kan., yesterday. Click photo for larger image.

"That was something I wanted to do for a long time," Fossett said after scrambling out of the cramped cockpit of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, the experimental jet used for the record-setting trek. "It has been a major ambition of mine."

Fossett landed in bright sunshine at 1:50 p.m. CST at the Salina Municipal Airport in Kansas, the former military airfield where he took off at sunset Monday. The trip took 67 hours 2 minutes and 38 seconds and was to cover 23,000 miles.

Although he had complained of a headache and fatigue, Fossett was all smiles and steady on his feet despite lack of sleep and nothing to eat for three days but diet milk shakes. Fossett, 60, who had been in a cockpit the size of a telephone booth, still managed an agile dodge when Sir Richard Branson sprayed him from a shaken bottle of champagne in a gesture of congratulations.

Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways and a close friend of Fossett, funded the project.

Hundreds of spectators were on hand in shirtsleeve weather, temperature in the mid-60s, to welcome Fossett, the retired millionaire investor from Chicago. Many more witnessed history unfolding on live television or the Internet.

Steve Fossett, WorldPictureNews/LIFE magazine via AP Steve Fossett took this photo of himself shortly before he landed his plane, the GoldenFlyer, seen below, in Salina, Kan., yesterday. Click photos for larger image.

Despite the excitement, it could take several weeks for the record to become official, according to Mission Control. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which certifies world aviation records, must review the flight to make certain that GlobalFlyer passed all the required checkpoints and met other conditions.

After Fossett crawled into the plane on Monday, for instance, an FAI representative attached official seals to strategic parts of the vehicle to rule out any possibility of fraud in claiming the record. One went over the lip of the cockpit hatch, another on the lid of the fuel tank cover, and others on the electronic "cards" in the flight data recorder.

The certification was to begin when FAI checked those seals at landing to rule out tampering.

During a news briefing, Branson rebuffed a suggestion that the fuel crisis was contrived to pump up interest in what had been a routine flight with little suspense.

"He didn't actually think he was going to make it," Branson said of Fossett. "Truth is often stranger than fiction. Everything that could have happened, seemed to have happened."

The fuel crunch emerged Wednesday, as GlobalFlyer was about the soar out over the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean. Despite earlier statements that the plane had plenty of fuel, mission controllers announced that about 388 gallons of fuel -- 15 percent of the total load -- was missing.

It was not clear whether there was an actual leak or just a problem with the sensors, Fossett's team said.

Fossett, they said, might have to abandon the trip, turn back and land in Japan, or struggle to reach an airport in Hawaii.

Jon Karkow, chief engineer for the mission, credited strong tail winds from the jet stream with giving GlobalFlyer the boost necessary to complete the flight.

Aviation legend Wiley Post was first to circumnavigate globe in 1933. He needed almost 8 days, including 11 stops for fuel, food and sleep. In 1986, two pilots flew a propeller aircraft named Voyager around the world in nine days with no stops or refueling.

Fossett's many aviation records include another solo circumnavigation of the globe. In 2002, after five unsuccessful attempts, he completed an around-the-world flight in the Spirit of Freedom, a hot air balloon. That flight took almost 15 days.