High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! James Stephen Fossett (April 22, 1944 – c. September 3, 2007) was an American commodities trader, businessman, and adventurer. Fossett is the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon. He made his fortune in the financial services industry, and was best known for many world records, including five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.