Aviation World Records

The miracle of flight itself is certainly worthy of awe, but there are many people looking to push the limits of the almost unreal method of transportation.

Whether it’s for the longest distance flown, or the highest speed reached by an aircraft, every aviation world record deserves respect. Among the records, some especially stand out. Here are a few of our favorites:

 

Longest non-stop flight by any aircraft:
On February 8th, 2006, Steve Fossett embarked on a nearly global voyage in a Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer airplane. From the 8th to the 11th, he flew 26,389.26 miles from the Kennedy Space center in Titusville, Florida to the town of Bournemouth in the United Kingdom. Now, when people think of flying from Florid to the UK, they usually picture doing so by flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Steve, on the other hand, had other plans. He flew the long way by heading west from Florida rather than east, directly towards England. In doing so, he broke the world record mentioned above, by flying 1,500 miles farther than the circumference of the Earth itself(24,901 miles). It is also worth mentioning that the previous record distance was held by a balloon.

 

Fastest Aircraft:
The Tupolev Tu-144 reached an absolutely blistering Mach 2.4, or 1,607.49 miles per hour on December 31st, 1968. This is the fastest recorded speed ever reached by an aircraft, which was almost reached again the next year but the BAC/Aeropatiale Concorde fell just short by reaching a top speed of Mach 2.02, or 1,449.66 miles per hour. A less immediate speed record was set by the Concorde when it flew from New York to London in just 2 hours 52 minutes and 59 seconds.
With these records come an incredible passion and knowledge for aviation and aircraft technology that we greatly appreciate. We always love to see how these elements of the field are pushed to their limits in order to blaze a trail for progress and future achievements. We strongly encourage you to look into the many other records that have been set over the past 75 years.
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