STEVE FOSSETT, the tycoon and adventurer who became the first person to circle the globe in a hot-air balloon, has officially been declared dead five months after he disappeared in a flight over the mountains of Nevada.

Fossett, who was 63, was flying a single engine aircraft when he vanished from radar screens. A month-long search and rescue mission found no trace of Fossett or his plane.

Yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court, Illinois, Judge Jeffrey Malak said there was “sufficient evidence” to declare Fossett dead after hearing from his wife Peggy, a family friend and a search-and-rescue expert.

His wife of 40 years had pleaded with the American authorities to certify her husband dead once the search had ended.

Fossett’s estate, an estimated eight-figure sum, can now be split up.

The self-made tycoon and adventurer struck up a high-profile rivalry with the entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson during the the 1980s and 1990s as the two men battled to take a hot air balloon around the world for the first time.

In 1998, he joined forces with his rival and struck up a strong friendship with Branson as they jointly tried for the record.

Branson, Fossett and Per Lindstrand, a Swedish balloonist, made it more than halfway round the world before poor wind conditions forced them to ditch in shark-infested waters off Honolulu on Christmas Day.

After six failed attempts, Fossett took the the crown in 2002 after floating nonstop for 19,428 miles around the southern hemisphere. The record-breaking trip took him two weeks.

In 2005, Fossett became the first solo pilot to fly a plane around the world without stopping to refuel after Branson paid for the plane GlobalFlyer.

A year later in the same aircraft he completed the longest nonstop plane flight in aviation history, flying 26,389 miles in 76 hours

Fossett’s other exploits included climbing the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro, and swimming the English Channel.

In all he set more than 100 seperate records as a pilot, sailor and hot-air balloon navigator, of which 60 still stand.

Fossett, a Stanford graduate, used his self-made fortune to fund the adventures.

Fossett won an economics degree at Stanford University before completing a master’s degree in business administration at Washington University.

He went to become a successful stockbroker and made his millions trading soy beans, setting up several trading companies, including Marathon Securities and Lakota Trading.

Fossett is survived by his widow Peggy.

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