Aviation adventurer Steve Fossett landed his experimental jet Thursday afternoon in central Kansas, successfully completing the first solo, nonstop flight around the world without refueling.

Fossett, 60, who is also the first person to circle the globe alone in a balloon, touched down in Salina at 2:52 p.m. ET. His landing came about 67 hours and 23,000 miles after taking off Monday from the same spot.

“I’m a really lucky guy now, I got to achieve my ambition,” he said after emerging from the plane’s cramped capsule.

Hundreds of spectators cheered as the sleek, white aircraft swooped in like a broad-winged bird to land from blue skies. Later, a high school marching band played.

“Just in time for lunch!” said a jubilant Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways and sponsor of the flight, who sprayed Fossett with champagne on the tarmac.

Earlier, Branson and mission flight engineer Jon Karkow took a chase plane to escort the $1.5 million aircraft, dubbed the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, part way across Kansas.

Fossett, who had to deal with faulty navigational equipment and the unexplained loss of 2,600 pounds of jet fuel, took tiny catnaps along the way but hadn’t really slept since Sunday night. He fueled himself with milkshakes.

But in a transmission from the cockpit as he reached the USA mainland early Thursday, he was lively. “I’m really starting to perk up,” he said, “now realizing that I’m getting close to the end.”

As the plane approached, spectators on the ground in several Western states watched the sky for the stripe of white condensation from the plane’s single jet engine.

The fuel problems Wednesday raised doubt about whether the millionaire adventurer could complete the journey.

But his flight team kept going rather than abandon the attempt and land in Hawaii after determining that he had sufficient tail wind to carry him across the Pacific and then halfway across the mainland.

The flight team chose Salina for the takeoff and landing because its 12,300-foot runway provided the needed length for Fossett to get the GlobalFlyer airborne with more than 9 tons of fuel.

Fossett, who holds numerous ballooning and sailing records, had broken one record the day before his return. Wednesday, he blew past the mark for the longest jet flight, set in 1962 by a B-52 bomber that flew 12,532 miles. Burt Rutan, designer of the custom-built aircraft, called Fossett’s feat “a phenomenal show of stamina.”