Flight distance record

This list of flight distance records contains only those set without any mid-air refueling.

Non-commercial powered aircraft

Sortable table

Year	Date	Distance	Pilot	Aircraft	Notes
2006	February 8-12, 2006	41,467.46 km	Steve Fossett	GlobalFlyer	Single pilot (Steve Fossett) flight.[1][2]
1986	December 14–23, 1986	40,212.14 km	Richard Glenn Rutan and Jeana Yeager	Rutan Voyager	Circumnavigation. Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record holder up to 2006 (current class holder).[3]
1962	January 10–11, 1962	20,168.78 km (12532.3 mi)	Major Clyde P. Evely and crew	Boeing B-52H Stratofortress	From Kadena AB, Okinawa to Torrejon AB, Spain, via Tokyo, Seattle, Fort Worth, Washington DC and the Azores[4]
1946	September 29 – October 2, 1946	18,083.6 km	CDR Tom Davies pilot, Cdr. Eugene Rankin (co-pilot) and two crew	P2V-1 Neptune	From Perth, Australia to Columbus, U.S.
1945	November 20, 1945	12,739.6 km	U.S. Army Air Forces; C. S. Irvine + crew of 9	Boeing B-29 Superfortress	From Guam to Washington DC, USA
1944	July 2, 1944	16,435 km	Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (Omata, Tanaka, Shimazaki, Sakamoto, Motimatsu, Habiro)	Tachikawa Ki-77	From Hsinking to Báichéng, China (closed circuit)
1939	August 1, 1939	12,936 km (8,038 mi)	Regia Aeronautica: Angelo Tondi, Riccardo Dogasso, Ferruccio Vignoni, Aldo Staiano	Savoia-Marchetti SM.82	Closed-circuit world record
1938	November 5–7, 1938	11,520.4 km (7,162 miles)	Royal Air Force Long Range Development Unit; R. Kellett, H.A.V. Hogan and A. N. Combe (first pilots) + crew of two (also qualified pilots) in each aircraft	Vickers Wellesley	From Ismailia, Egypt to Darwin, Northern Territory in Australia; three aircraft flew in formation, Hogan landed to refuel at Koepang (500 miles short of Darwin, Australia), the other two landed at Darwin, Northern Territory.[5]
1938	May 13–15, 1938	11,651.011 km	Yuzoh Fujita + crew (Japan)	Koken-ki	Three-corner course over Japan. Closed-circuit record.[6]
1937	July 12–14, 1937	10,148.5 km	Mikhail Gromov + crew (Soviet Union)	Tupolev ANT-25	From Moscow to San Jacinto, California, USA
1933	August 5–7, 1933	9,104.7 km	Maurice Rossi and Paul Codos (France)	Blériot 110 F-ALCC	From Floyd Bennett Field, New York, USA to Rayak, Syria
1933	February 8, 1933	8,544 km	Royal Air Force Long Range Development Unit; O. R. Gayford and Gilbert Nicholetts	Fairey Long-range Monoplane K1991	From Cranwell, UK, to Walvis Bay, South Africa
1931	August 18–29	8,940 km	Marga von Etzdorf	Junkers A 50ce Junior	From Berlin Tempelhof Airport to Haneda Airport
1931	October 5	8,851 km	Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon	Bellanca CH-400 or Bellanca J-300 ''Miss Veedol'' From	Wenatchee Washington to Misawa Japan
1931	July 28–31	8,066 km	Russell Boardman and John Polando	Bellanca J-300 Special Cape Cod NR761W	From Floyd Bennett Field to Istanbul, Turkey[7]
1929	December 15–19, 1929	8,029.44 km	Dieudonné Costes and P. Codas	Breguet 19 Super Bidon Point d'Interrogation	Closed-circuit record.[8][9]
1929	September 27–29, 1929	7,905.140 km	Dieudonne Costes and Maurice Bellonte	Breguet 19 Super Bidon Point d'Interrogation	Paris to Qiqihar, China.[10]
1928	July 3–5, 1928	7,188.26 km	Arturo Ferrarin and Carlo del Prete	Savoia Marchetti S.64	From Montecelio (Italy) to Touros (Brasil). Distance in a straight line. FAI Database ID#9108
1927	June 28–29	3,862.43 km	Albert Francis Hegenberger and Lester Maitland	Fokker F.VII	From California to Hawaii, the longest open sea flight up to that date, in the "Bird of Paradise". They received the Mackey Trophy and the Distinguished Flying Cross from President Calvin Coolidge for this achievement.[11]
1927	May 20–21, 1927	5,809 km	Charles Lindbergh	Ryan NYP, Spirit of St. Louis	Single pilot flight New York – Paris[12][13]
1926	October 28–29, 1926	5,396 km	Dieudonné Costes and Jean Rignot	Breguet 19 GR	From Paris–Le Bourget Airport to Djask, Iran[14][15]
1926	August 31 – September 1, 1926	5,174 km	Léon Challe and René Weiser	Breguet 19 GR	From Paris–Le Bourget Airport to Bandar Abbas[14][16]
1926	July 14–15, 1926	4715.90 km	André Girier and François Dordilly	Breguet 19 GR	From Paris to Omsk[14][17]
1926	June 26–27, 1926	4313 km	Ludovic Arrachart and Paul Arrachart	Potez 28	From Paris to Basrah, Iraq[18][19]
1925	August 30–31, 1925	3,206 km	CDR John Rodgers (USN)	PN-9 Flying Boat	From San Francisco and Honolulu by Seaplane over open water without visual navigational aides.[20][21]
1925	August 7–9, 1925	4,400 km	Maurice Drouhin and Jules Landry	Farman F.62 Goliath	Closed circuit Chartres–Étampes–Toussus–Chartres.[22][23]
1925	February 3–4, 1925	3,166.30 km	Ludovic Arrachart and Henry Lemaitre	Breguet 19	Distance in a straight line record. Étampes–Villa Cisneros.[24][25]
1923	April 16–17, 1923	4,050 km	Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready	Fokker T.2	Closed circuit around Dayton, Ohio[26][27]
1920	June 3–4, 1920	1,915.2 km	L Boussoutrot and J Bernard	Farman Goliath	Closed-circuit record[28]
1919	June 14–15, 1919	3,040 km	John Alcock and Arthur Brown	Vickers Vimy	Flew non-stop from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Connemara in 15 hours 57 minutes
1914	February 7, 1914	1,699 km	Karl Ingold	Mercedes Aviatik-Pfeil[29]	He flew continuously from 7:35 am until 11:55 pm covering 1,056 miles in 16 hours and 20 minutes.[30]
1903	December 17, 1903	279 m	Wilbur Wright	Wright Flyer	59 seconds
1903	December 17, 1903	39 m	Orville Wright	Wright Flyer	12 seconds
1901	August 14, 1901	250 m	Gustave Albin Whitehead	Condor	3 min.[31] Probably towed by an assistant running and holding a rope on the ground[32]
1852	September 24, 1852	17 miles	Henri Giffard	The Giffard airship	over an hour[33]

Commercial aircraft

Year	Date	Distance	Pilot	Aircraft	Reference
2005	November 9, 2005	21,602.22 km	Suzanna Darcy-Henneman, Asif Abbas Raza, John Cashman, Mohammed Ilyas Malik, Randy Austin, Frank Santoni, Rod Skaar	Boeing 777-200LR	Hong Kong International Airport to London Heathrow Airport the long way round taking 22 hours, 22 minutes[34][35]
1997	April 2, 1997	20,044 km		Boeing 777-200ER	Malaysia Airlines delivery flight from Boeing Field, Seattle to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in 21 hours and 23 minutes.
2011	December 6, 2011	19,830 km		Boeing 787-8	Boeing Field to Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh in 21 hours and 43 minutes.
1993	June 16 to 18, 1993	19,277 km		Airbus A340-200	Airbus A340 demonstration flight from Paris, France to Auckland International Airport, New Zealand.
2020	April 14 to 15, 2020	18,209 km		Boeing 777-300ER	Virgin Australia ferry flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Brisbane Airport in 19 hours and 45 minutes; returning after evacuating French citizens from New Zealand due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
1989	August 16 to 17, 1989	18,001 km		Boeing 747-400	Qantas delivery flight from London Heathrow Airport to Sydney International Airport in 20 hours and 9 minutes.
2019	November 14 to 15, 2019	17,750 km		Boeing 787-9	Qantas Between London Heathrow Airport and Sydney International Airport in 19 hours and 19 minutes.[36]
2013	June 6, 2013	17,312 km		Airbus A330-200	Delta Air Lines ferry flight between Singapore and Atlanta in 18 hours and 34 minutes; returning from extensive cabin renovations.
2002	December 24, 2002	16,910 km		Airbus A330-200	Qantas between Toulouse and Melbourne in 20 hours 4 minutes.[37]
2004	June 28, 2004	16,600 km		Airbus A340-500	Singapore Airlines between Singapore and Newark, New Jersey in 18 hours 20 minutes. The longest regularly scheduled commercial flight except between termination on November 23, 2013 and relaunch on October 11, 2018.[38]
2019	October 18 to 20, 2019	16,200 km		Boeing 787-9	Qantas between New York and Sydney in 19 hours 16 minutes.[39][40]
2003	November 5, 2003	15,300 km		Boeing 777-300ER	Boeing Company between Sydney and Recife, Brazil in 18 hours 25 minutes. ETOPS test flight.[41]
2017	February 5, 2017	14,535 km		Boeing 777-200LR	Qatar Airways between Doha and Auckland in 16 hours 10 minutes, formerly the world's longest commercial flight.
2004	February 3, 2004	14,093 km		Airbus A340-500	Singapore Airlines between Singapore and Los Angeles in 14 hours 42 minutes. [38]
1988	September 17, 1988	14,042 km		Boeing 767-200ER	Air Mauritius between Halifax and Mauritius in 16 hours and 27 minutes.

Shortest distance

The Loganair Westray to Papa Westray route and its return flight make up the shortest flight distance for any scheduled air carrier service. The route is 2.8 km (1.7 miles), and travel time, including taxi, is usually less than two minutes. The route is served by Loganair airlines' Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. This record was established when service began in 1967, and it remains in effect as of January 2016.[42][43]

Other types of aircraft

Date	Measurement	Person	Aircraft	Reference
January 21, 2003	3,008.8 km	Klaus Ohlmann and Karl Rabeder	Schempp-Hirth Nimbus-4	The gliding flight consisted of four legs along the eastern side of the Andes mountain range. The flight time of 15h 8m giving an average speed of almost exactly 200 km/h.[44][45]
March 21, 1999	40,814 km	Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones	Breitling Orbiter	Distance record for a balloon
January 31, 2015	10,711 km	Troy Bradley and Leonid Tiukhtyaev	Two Eagles Balloon	Distance record for a straight gas balloon

See also

• Flight length
• Cross-America flight air speed record
• Aerial circumnavigation
• Longest flights

Notes and references

1. "FAI Record ID #13081 - Distance, C-Absolute (Absolute Record of classes C, H and M) Archived 2014-10-17 at the Wayback Machine" Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Retrieved: October 10, 2014.
2. Fossett link Archived October 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
3. "FAI Record ID #8391 - Distance over a closed course. Class C-1e Archived 2013-12-24 at the Wayback Machine" Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Retrieved: October 10, 2014.
4. Taylor 1966, p. 2.
5. "Triple triumph" Flight 1938]
6. Mikesh and Abe 1990, p. 91.
7. "'Cape Cod's' Success Climaxes 5 Years [of] Bellanca Records". The Sunday Morning Star, Wilmington, DE. August 2, 1931. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
8. "FAI Record ID #9288". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
9. "New Closed Circuit Record". Flight. Vol. XXI no. 1095. December 20, 1929. p. 1330.
10. "World's Records In Aviation". Flight, March 20, 1931, p. 247.
11. Bird of Paradise Archived December 12, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
12. "FAI Record ID #14842". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
13. "New York–Paris: Lindbergh's Non-Stop Fight Across the Atlantic". Flight. Vol. XIX no. 961. May 26, 1927. pp. 331–333.
14. Green, Swanborough and Leyvastre 1978, p. 171.
15. "FAI Record ID #9306". Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
16. "FAI Record ID #9307". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
17. "FAI Record ID #9299". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
18. "FAI Record ID #9304". Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
19. Parmentier, Bruno. "Potez 28/2". aviafrance. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
20. "Hawaii Aviation". hawaii.gov.
21. "Hawaii Aviation". hawaii.gov.
22. "The New World's Duration Record". Flight. Vol. XVII no. 868. August 13, 1925. p. 525.
23. "The World's Duration Record: Some More Details Concerning the Wonderful Farman Performance". Flight. Vol. XVII no. 870. August 27, 1925. p. 550.
24. Green, Swanborough and Leyvastre 1978, p. 170.
25. "FAI Record ID #9305". Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2013..
26. "Thirty-six Hours in the Air". Flight. Vol. XV no. 748. April 26, 1923. p. 232.
27. "Records Homologated". Flight. Vol. XV no. 757. June 28, 1923. p. 356.
28. "The Royal Aero Club of the U.K.: Official Notices to Members: Official World's Records Passed by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, January 6 to October 20, 1920". Flight. Vol. XII no. 625. December 16, 1920. p. 1274.
29. "Aviatik B / P.14". flyingmachines.ru.
30. "German Airmen Sets Record". Popular Mechanics. 1914.
31. "Gustave-Whitehead.com, Gustav Weißkopf, © John Brown". www.gustave-whitehead.com.
32. Schlenoff, Daniel C. "Scientific American Debunks Claim Gustave Whitehead Was "First in Flight"". scientificamerican.com.
33. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
34. "Flight-distance record awaits as big 777 heads to London". seattlepi.com. November 8, 2005. Retrieved October 13, 2018.
35. Chuck Cadena. "Boeing to Set New World Record for Distance with 777-200LR Worldliner Flight". boeing.mediaroom.com.
36. "Qantas Flew Non-stop from London to Sydney in Less Than 20 Hours". www.qantas.com. Retrieved July 23, 2020.
37. "Qantas flies Airbus A330 nonstop from Europe to Australia". Airbus.
38. "Singapore Airlines A340-500 Beats its own Non-Stop Flight Distance Record". June 28, 2004. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
39. Hatch, Patrick (October 20, 2019). "On board the 19 hour Qantas flight from New York to Sydney". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
40. Josephs, Leslie (October 18, 2019). "Qantas tests passenger limits — and pilot brain patterns — on world's longest nonstop flight". CNBC. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
41. "Boeing set for final 777-300ER phase" (PDF). November 5, 2003. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
42. "Final trip for Orkney shortest flight pilot". BBC News. May 26, 2013. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
43. Clarke, Chris. "The World's Shortest Commercial Flight Takes Less Than A Minute". Flight Club. Retrieved January 21, 2016.
44. FAI link to gliding records Archived December 5, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
45. "Schallmauer durchbrochen" (PDF). Skyrevue. January 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 3, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2013. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

References

• Green, William, Gordon Swanborough and Pierre Layvastre. "The Saga of the Ubiquitous Breguet". Air Enthusiast, Seven, July–September 1978. pp. 161–181.
• Mikesh, Robert C. and Abe, Shorzoe. Japanese Aircraft 1910-1941. London:Putnam, 1990. ISBN 0-85177-840-2.
• Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1966-67. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1966.