Flying around the world is an amazing experience. Anyone lucky enough to get the chance to do this will probably want to spend as long as possible enjoying the cities and sights along the way. But if you want to fly as quickly as possible, how long would it take? This article takes a look.
Flying around the world
Flying around the world has long been on the list of significant travel achievements. Jules Verne idolized it in “Around the World in 80 Days” in 1872, using rail and sea connections. Aviation came later, and a team of US military aviators made the first around the world flight in 1924. This took 175 days and covered over 42,000 kilometers. A great achievement, but hardly a quick trip.
Flying non-stop
The first way to look at flying around the world would be just to fly it as fast as possible. The first non-stop flight was made in 1986, using the Rutan Model Aircraft 76 Voyage aircraft. It flew the equator route around the world in nine days, three minutes, and 44 seconds.
The current record is held by Virgin Atlantic-backed GlobalFlyer. This single-engine aircraft was flown around the world in 2005 by pilot Steve Fossett. It flew the Tropic of Cancer route around the world in just over 67 hours. It achieved what standard aircraft cannot by taking advantage of winds and flying at very high altitudes, burning military-grade aviation fuel with a lower freezing point than standard jet fuel.
Of course, achieving this with a standard commercial aircraft is not yet possible. Qantas has now flown non-stop from Perth to London and is looking at Sydney to London (it flew this with a Boeing 787 in 2019 but not yet commercially).
Until Qantas launches…