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Steve Fossett, 63, an American millionaire who financed many of his own record-setting adventures over the seas and into the skies, was declared legally dead Feb. 15 by a Chicago judge, five months after he disappeared while piloting a single-engine plane over western Nevada.

Mr. Fossett, known for his globe-circling, nonstop flights by airplane and balloon, was reported missing Sept. 3. He last was seen taking off from an airstrip owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton near Yerington, Nev., on what was supposed to be a two-hour pleasure flight.

After exhaustive searches failed to find any traces of him or the plane in the rugged terrain, Peggy Viehland Fossett petitioned a court in November to declare her husband dead. On Friday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Malak heard testimony from Peggy Fossett, a family friend and a search-and-rescue expert, according to the Associated Press, and decided that evidence was sufficient for the death declaration. Mr. Fossett lived in Chicago and Beaver Creek, Colo.

As an aviator, sailor and hot-air balloon navigator, Mr. Fossett achieved dozens of records for speed, altitude and distance in the past 10 years. In July, he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He also set 23 official world records in sailing.

In 2002, he traveled 18,827 miles to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone in a balloon. Last year, he not only flew an airplane solo more than 25,700 miles -- a record distance in a nonstop, non-refueled airplane -- but he also copiloted a glider to what he said was nine miles into the earth's stratosphere, a record height in that craft.

In appearance, Mr. Fossett met no one's idea of a sinewy thrill-seeker. He had a receding hairline, imperfect vision and a slightly paunchy build. He fit the physical ideal of his fortune-making first profession, Chicago commodities and options trader.

He spoke of his desire to test human endurance as an extension of all that made him a success in business -- a sense of competition and an ability to withstand intense pressure.

"Business is much easier for me," he told the Chicago Tribune. "Sports is often very humiliating, because there are so many better athletes in these events. I would like to be the best in everything, but that's not possible. I risk humiliation because I have a genuine interest in participating."

James Stephen Fossett, whose father was a soap factory manager, was born April 22, 1944, in Jackson, Tenn. He was raised in Orange County, Calif., where he was found to have asthma.

He failed to make his high school's cross-country or swim teams. But excited by spy novels about James Bond and fueled with admiration for explorers of another generation, he joined the Boy Scouts and began to hike and climb throughout California.

After entering Stanford University in 1962, he spent college vacations seeking adventure abroad. He scaled some of the most difficult mountains in the Swiss Alps and nearly killed himself on the Eiger when he slipped hundreds of feet down a glacier.

After finishing Stanford, he completed a master's degree in business administration from St. Louis's Washington University in 1968. He became a millionaire trading soybeans on the commodities market for the brokerage firm Merrill Lynch. He also worked for the billionaire Hunt brothers of Texas before going into business for himself as an options trader. He eased into semi-retirement by the early 1990s but remained heavily involved in markets nationwide.

Starting in the 1980s, adventure sports increasingly became part of his vacation plans. He participated in a 100-mile cross-country skiing marathon in Canada, the Ironman triathlon in Hawaii, the Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska, the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race and four English Channel swims.

It was another decade before he made international news, for his 1995 balloon flight from Seoul to Saskatchewan. It marked the first time an aeronaut crossed the Pacific Ocean alone in such a craft.

Over the next decade, he spent millions of dollars trying to set records in hot-air balloon travel. In 1998, he joined forces with his rival in flight, Richard Branson of the Virgin Group business empire, but then focused on breaking the solo balloon circumnavigation record after the European team of Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became in 1999 the first balloonists to circle the globe.

Along the way, Mr. Fossett was credited with being the first to fly alone over large stretches of daunting land. He also experienced many downings, including in New Brunswick, Canada, and rural northeastern India.

In 1998, a thunderstorm with hail ended his balloon flight somewhere over the Coral Sea He was sent spiraling 29,000 feet, and he told an interviewer that he was at first plunging at a fatal rate of 60 feet per second.

Using a knife, he slashed away the fuel tanks at 3,500 feet, which reduced the rate of fall, but he still blacked out when the craft slammed into the water. He soon awakened to find the balloon taking on water.

"I made a rather hasty exit from the capsule -- it was on fire," he told National Geographic Adventure magazine. "I just got out with my long underwear, a life raft, and a rescue beacon."

It was 23 hours before a yachtsman spotted him.

In 2005, he set an aviation record for solo, nonstop flight around the world. His old partner, Branson, paid for the plane, the GlobalFlyer. The plane, an experimental aircraft featuring 13 fuel tanks, landed back in Kansas after making a 23,000-mile trip in 67 hours and one minute.

Survivors include his wife, Peggy Viehland Fossett, an admitted "white-knuckle" traveler he married in 1968. He discovered her fear of heights when he piloted her to a honeymoon spot in the Bahamas in a single-engine aircraft. Thereafter, she remained at home while he scouted his next trip. She usually refrained from commenting publicly about her husband's adventures.

Mr. Fossett described himself as having a "very low boredom threshold."

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