First person to circumnavigate the globe in a gyrocopter
NORMAN SURPLUS, who has died of cancer aged 59, was a businessman from Co Antrim who became the first man to circumnavigate the globe in an autogyro (or gyrocopter), the flying machine made famous by the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.
In 2003 Surplus had been diagnosed with advanced bowel cancer and given only a 40 per cent chance of surviving 18 months. Given the all-clear after surgery and chemotherapy, he began planning his odyssey with the aim of raising funds and awareness for cancer research.
After undergoing extensive training, on March 22 2010, cheered on by well-wishers, Surplus waved goodbye to his wife Celia and two young children, lifted off in his tiny yellow aircraft from a playing field in Larne, Co Antrim, on the first leg of his 27,000-mile journey, and set out over the Irish Sea.
Despite the need to land every evening to feed, sleep and refuel, and with planned stop-offs in 25 countries, he was optimistic that he would complete the journey in four months: “I’ll also be wearing a special flight suit for the trip so in case I did have to ditch in the Atlantic or somewhere I’d have my dry suit on with a personal locator,” he said. “I’ll be carrying a life raft as well. I’m the second coxswain on Larne Lifeboat so I’ve had plenty of survival training.”
But his time estimate proved wildly optimistic.
In 2010 he flew his craft over Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but on the way he was grounded for three months after crashing into a Thai lake and had to abandon his journey at one stage because of bad weather.
He then found himself stuck in the Philippines for two weeks waiting for clearance to fly through Japan after the Chinese refused him permission to take one of the two viable routes out of the Philippines. The Japanese initially refused, but following pleas from supporters, permission was granted and Surplus reached Japan after approximately a year.
He planned to continue his journey via the Russian Far East, and then cross over to the United States via Alaska. However, his permission to fly over Russian territory had expired and a deteriorating international political climate led the Russians to refuse to renew it.
Surplus’s autogyro remained in Japan for three years as he looked into other routes through the Japanese islands and the Aleutians, or the South Pacific, but his craft did not have quite enough range.
When he did resume his journey in June 2015, he flew from the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, Oregon, where he had shipped the autogyro the previous year, crossing the US and becoming the first person to cross the Atlantic by autogyro, travelling via Greenland and the Faroe Islands and making landfall in Larne in August. By this time Surplus had set 19 FAI world records, including “the furthest distance flown by a gyrocopter in aviation history”.
In 2013 Surplus had appealed directly to Vladimir Putin during the Russian president’s visit to Northern Ireland for permission to fly through Russia – permission which was only finally granted in 2019. Leaving Larne on Easter Monday, he crossed England, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, before flying 5,000 miles across Russia, battling freezing temperatures over Siberia and passing through seven different time zones.
He completed his circumnavigation on June 28 2019, landing at the Oregon museum.
Norman Surplus was born in Larne on February 7 1963 and established a successful business career, becoming a video game designer in the early days of computer games and a co-founder of a clean technology company.
Surplus is survived by his wife and children.
Norman Surplus, born February 7 1963, died April 19 2022