A new plaza planned at Salina Regional Airport will celebrate a world record flight that took off and landed back safely in Salina in 2005.

Tim Rogers, Executive Director of the Salina Airport Authority joined in on the KSAL Morning News Wednesday and says the new space will not only honor Steve Fossett’s nonstop global flight – but open up the airport for visitors to watch a wide variety of flight operations.

“Whether it’s a business jet taking off and landing, or K-State training traffic or the military when they come in for a training exercise, we are starting on the process to build the Fossett Plaza.”

A focal point in the new plaza will be a 15-foot metal sculpture that helps tell the story of the 67-hour flight of the GlobalFlyer that set an aviation world record.

“The metal structure will have the globe, with the GlobalFlyer streaking across, on the around the world flight,” Rogers said.

Storyboards erected on the plaza will also let generations to come learn more about Fossett’s inspirational flight. Fossett held numerous aviation records including a ride around the world in a high altitude balloon before his death in an airplane crash in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 2007.

Rogers says the sculpture is being designed by B & B Metal Arts of Hosington, Kansas. Work on the plaza will get underway this Spring and be ready for a Grand Opening this Fall.