With the introduction of voicemail, business peo-
ple could make many more calls without having to
rely on other staff members, thereby saving compa-
nies money as well as lost time and messages. Educa-
tors could reach students’ parents without getting a
busy signal. The recipient could store messages, play
them back remotely and at any time, or forward
them to another location.
The downside to voicemail was that the recipient
might have to spend a lot of time listening to calls. At
home, people received unwanted sales calls on their
voicemail. For people who wanted to speak with
each other live, a lot of time might be spent playing
“phone tag” with each other before they actually
connected. People who called businesses often were
automatically redirected without being able to speak
to a customer service representative.
Impact By the early twenty-first century, voicemail
had become a ubiquitous feature for cell phone us-
ers and many businesses. People found voicemail to
be both a blessing and a hindrance. While it liber-
ated them from many of the hassles associated with
earlier phone systems, it required people to be al-
ways “on call”—always able to be contacted.
Further Reading
Bates, Regis J., with Donald W. Gregory.Voice and
Data Communications Handbook.New York: Mc-
Graw-Hill, 2006.
LeBon, Paul.Escape from Voicemail Hell: Boost Your Pro-
ductivity by Making Voicemail Work for You.High-
land Village, Tex.: Parleau, 1999.
Jan Hall
See also AT&T breakup; Cell phones; Computers;
Fax machines; Globalization; Inventions; Science
and technology.
Voyagerglobal flight
The Event An airplane circles the earth in
nonstop flight
Date December 14-23, 1986
Place Left from and returned to Edwards Air
Force Base, Mojave Desert, California
Two U.S. pilots circumnavigated the world in an innova-
tive composite-material aircraft that transported sufficient
fuel to enable them to complete the trip without stopping or
refueling in transit. Their achievement inspired aerospace
design.
During the early twentieth century, several airplane
pilots successfully circumnavigated the earth, set-
ting various records, as advancements in aviation
technology lengthened the possible distance and
duration of flight. Aviators were inspired by a 1962
B-52 Stratofortress nonstop flight covering 12,519
miles between Okinawa, Japan, and Madrid, Spain,
without refueling. Their next goal was a nonstop cir-
cumnavigation of the globe requiring no supple-
mentary fueling. In 1981, brothers Burt Rutan, an
aircraft designer, and Richard Rutan, a former U.S.
Air Force pilot, and their colleague Jeana Yeager en-
visioned an airplane capable of transporting suffi-
cient fuel to sustain an Earth-circling nonstop flight.
The trio established Voyager Aircraft and utilized
Burt Rutan’s experiences with composites and ca-
nard wings to design a light aircraft capable of lifting
large amounts of fuel. For approximately eighteen
months, they assembled theVoyagerfrom layers of
carbon fibers, polymers, and epoxy molded into var-
ious components and heated to strengthen the air-
craft, which resembled the letter “W” with a 110-foot
bendable wing bisecting it. TheVoyager’s small cabin,
seventeen fuel tanks, canard, and wing totaled 939
pounds. Two engines poweredVoyager. A Federal Avi-
ation Administration (FAA) inspector approvedVoy-
agerfor flight.
TheVoyagerteam pushed to attain the record be-
fore rival aviators achieved that goal. Starting on
June 22, 1984, Richard Rutan and Yeager began test
flights in theVoyager, discovering technical issues
needing repair, as well as optimal flying strategies to
respond to various flight conditions. Inside the nar-
rowVoyager’s cabin, one pilot sat, while the other re-
clined. During sixty-seven flight tests, they achieved
records, including a 11,857-mile flight in July, 1986,
between San Luis Obispo, California, and San Fran-
cisco, California, with no refueling. This flight re-
sulted in theVoyagerproject receiving some funds,
but corporate financial support—which they had
hoped to secure—remained an elusive goal. The
Rutans and Yeager invested an estimated two million
dollars inVoyager.
Around the World Rutan and Yeager prepared to
fly in early December, 1986, but rain disrupted their
plan. After skies cleared, they transferred theVoyager
to Edwards Air Force Base on December 13. The1026 Voyagerglobal flight The Eighties in America