Circumnavigation world record progression
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of the fastest circumnavigation, made by a person or team, excluding orbits of Earth from spacecraft.
List
| People or team | Total duration | Departure date | Arrival date | Notes | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juan Sebastián Elcano and crew (originally led by Ferdinand Magellan) | 2 years, 11 months and 17 days | 20 September 1519 | 6 September 1522 | Magellan expedition | [1] |
| Francis Drake and crew | 2 years, 9 months and 13 days | 13 December 1577 | 26 September 1580 | Francis Drake's circumnavigation | [1] |
| Thomas Cavendish and crew | 2 years, 1 month and 19 days | 21 July 1586 | 9 September 1588 | Thomas Cavendish's circumnavigation | [1] |
| Crew of the Eendracht (originally led by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire) | 2 years and 17 days | 14 June 1615 | 1 July 1617 | [2] | |
| John Byron and crew | 1 year, 10 months and 7 days | 2 July 1764 | 9 May 1766 | [3] | |
| George Simpson | 1 year, 7 months and 26 days | 4 March 1841 | 31 October 1842 | [4] | |
| Clipper Marco Polo, Captain James "Bully" Forbes. | 175 days | 4 July 1852 | 26 December 1852 | From Liverpool | [5][6] |
| Clipper Lightning, Captain James "Bully" Forbes. | 162 days | 14 May 1854 | 23 October 1854 | From Liverpool to Liverpool. | [7] |
| This period is incomplete | - | 1854 | 1870 | - | |
| George Francis Train | 80 days | 10 July 1870 | 21 December 1870 | By ships and trains, from New York City. Counting only time spent traveling; Train stopped along the way to give lectures and support the Communards, and was held in a French jail for 13 days as a result. This circumnavigation has been attributed with inspiring Jules Verne. | [8] |
| Nellie Bly | 72 days | 14 November 1889 | 25 January 1890 | Multiple means of transport, inspired by Jules Verne | [9] |
| George Francis Train | 67 days, 12 hours and 3 minutes | 18 March 1890 | 24 May 1890 | By ships and trains, from Tacoma, Washington | [8][10] |
| George Francis Train | 64 days | 9 May 1891 | 12 July 1891 | By ships and trains, from Fairhaven, Washington | [8] |
| J. Willis Sayre | 54 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes | 26 June 1903 | 20 August 1903 | From Seattle, via Trans-Siberian Railway. | [11] |
| Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, Henry Frederick, John Henry Mears | 35 days, 21 hours, 35 minutes and 18 seconds | 2 July 1913 | 6 August 1913 | A combination of steamers, yachts, and trains | [12] |
| Linton Wells, Edward S. Evans | 28 days, 14 hours, 36 minutes and 5 seconds | 16 June 1926 | 14 July 1926 | A combination of boat, airplane, and trains | [13][14][15] |
| John Henry Mears | 23 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes and 5 seconds | 28 June 1928 | 22 July 1928 | [16] | |
| Hugo Eckener | 21 days, 5 hours and 31 minutes | 8 August 1929 | 29 August 1929 | First circumnavigation in an airship, aboard LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin from Lakehurst, New Jersey | [17][18] |
| Pilot Wiley Post and navigator Harold Gatty | 8 days, 15 hours and 31 minutes | 23 June 1931 | 1 July 1931 | Lockheed Vega aeroplane, travelled 24,903 kilometres (15,474 miles), did not cross equator | [19] |
| Wiley Post | 7 days, 19 hours and 49 minutes | 15 July 1933 | 22 July 1933 | Using an autopilot and radio direction finder, did not cross equator. From New York City | [19][20] |
| Howard Hughes, navigator Thomas Thurlow, engineer Richard Stoddard, and mechanic Ed Lund | 3 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes | 10 July 1938 | 14 July 1938 | Lockheed 14 Super Electra (NX18973) New York City; flight operations manager Albert Lodwick | [21][22] |
| Navigator Milton Reynolds, pilot Bill Odom and engineer Thomas Carroll "Tex" Sallee | 3 days, 6 hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds | 12 April 1947 | 16 April 1947 | Modified twin-engine Douglas A-26 Invader Reynolds Bombshell from/to LaGuardia Airport. Unofficial record, as the flight did not include points specified by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. | [23][24] |
| James Gallagher and crew (United States Air Force) | 3 days, 22 hours and 1 minute | 2 March 1949 | 4 March 1949 | B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II first aircraft to circle globe non-stop with four in-air refuelings, 37,743 kilometres (23,452 miles), did not cross equator and traveled no further south than the 20-degree parallel. | [25] |
| Col. James Morris[26] and crew (United States Air Force) | 45 hours and 19 minutes | 16 January 1957 | 18 January 1957 | Operation Power Flite, three B-52 bombers, led by Lucky Lady III, supported by at least 76 KC-76 refueling aircraft, 39,147 kilometres (24,325 miles), no equatorial crossing | [27][28] |
| David Springbett | 44 hours and 6 minutes | 8 January 1980 | 10 January 1980 | Retains record for circumnavigation using only scheduled transportation. | [28] |
| Friendship One | 36 hours, 54 minutes and 15 seconds | 28 January 1988 | 30 January 1988 | Boeing 747SP captained by Clay Lacy from Boeing Field in Seattle. Passengers included Neil Armstrong. | [29] |
| Allen Paulson and three co-pilots | 36 hours, 8 minutes and 34 seconds | 26 February 1988 | 27 February 1988 | Gulfstream IV flown by Gulfstream CEO Allen Paulson from William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas. | [30] |
| Air France Flight 1492 | 32 hours, 49 minutes and 3 seconds | 12 October 1992 | 13 October 1992 | Concorde FAI "Westbound Around the World" world air speed record from Lisbon, Portugal. Part of commemorations of the Columbus Quincentenary.[31][32] | |
| Michel Dupont and Claude Hetru (Air France) | 31 hours, 27 minutes and 49 seconds | 15 August 1995 | 16 August 1995 | Concorde with 98 passengers and crew, no equatorial crossing. "Eastbound Around the World" world air speed record from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York. | [33][34] |
Other categories
| People or team | Total duration (days) | Departure date | Arrival date | Notes | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States Army Air Service, Lowell H. Smith and Leslie P. Arnold, and Erik H. Nelson and John Harding Jr. | 175 calendar days, and covered 26,345 miles (42,398 km) | 17 March 1924 | 28 September 1924 | First aerial circumnavigation 363 flying hours 7 minutes; two aircraft of four Douglas World Cruisers complete the mission from Sand Point, Seattle, Washington. | [35]: 315 [36] |
| Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, and crew | over 2 years | 31 May 1928 | June 1930 | Southern Cross from Oakland, California | [37][38] |
| Captain Ford and Crew | one month | 2 December 1941 | 6 January 1942 | Pan American World Airways' Pacific Clipper the Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat NC-18609(A) the first commercial plane flight to circumnavigate the world from Treasure Island, San Francisco to LaGuardia Field.[39] | |
| Rutan Voyager, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager | 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds | 14 December 1986 | 23 December 1986 | first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling from Edwards Air Force Base | [40] |
| Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones | 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes | 1 March 1999 | 21 March 1999 | Breitling Orbiter 3 first balloon to fly around the world non-stop from Swiss Alpine village of Château-d'Oex | [41] |
| Steve Fossett | 13 days, 8 hours, 33 minutes | 19 June 2002 | 3 July 2002 | Spirit of Freedom balloon, first solo aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling from Northam, Western Australia | [42] |
| Steve Fossett | 67 hours, 1 minute, 10 seconds | 28 February 2005 | 3 March 2005 | GlobalFlyer first solo nonstop un-refueled fixed-wing aircraft flight around the world from Salina, Kansas | [43][44][45] |
| Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg | 5 months | 9 March 2015 | Five months later | Solar Impulse the first round-the-world solar flight in history. | [46] |
