This is about the Voyager flight of 1986, the first nonstop, unrefueled circumnavigation of the Earth. Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager flew Burt Rutan's composite aircraft from Edwards Air Force Base in California on December 14, 1986, and landed there on December 23, after 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds in the air. The airplane was built to carry almost nothing but fuel. Its wings were so heavy with it that the two pilots had to nurse the aircraft through the flight, and the cabin was barely big enough for them to sit in. They could not lie flat, so they slept in short turns while the other flew.
The crew had to manage fuel in several tanks by hand while keeping the plane level, and at times the engines and the tanks were a constant worry. The phrase "airborne coffin" fits the cramped cabin and the risk they carried, though the flight's organisers and the pilots treated it as a carefully planned engineering test. The aircraft is now in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum.
If you're looking for the book, documentary or article with that exact title, I'd check its author and publication before relying on my summary. Do you know where you came across it? Tell us and we can work through it together.
Also discussed here:
- Russian strikes kill at least nine in Ukraine days after announced …
