What is the quickest flight around the world?

The fastest circumnavigation of Earth via both the geographic poles by aeroplane is 46 hours 40, minutes and 22 seconds was achieved by Captain Hamish Harding (UK), Captain Jacob Bech (Denmark), Captain Jeremy Ascough (South Africa), Captain Yevgen Vasylenko (Ukraine) and Qatar Executive (Qatar) at Kennedy Space Center ...



The record for the quickest flight around the world depends on whether you are measuring a commercial journey or a specialized military/private flight. For a commercial passenger itinerary, the "speed" is often limited by layovers and scheduled routes. However, the official record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via the North and South Poles was set in 2019 by the "One More Orbit" mission, using a Gulfstream G650ER business jet, which completed the trip in 46 hours, 39 minutes, and 38 seconds. This broke the previous record set by Captain Hamish Harding. If you are looking for the fastest "around the world" flight in a single commercial aircraft without stopping, such a flight does not currently exist, as even the longest routes like Singapore to New York only cover about half the globe. Historically, the Air France Concorde held a world record in 1992, circling the globe in just 32 hours and 49 minutes, including refueling stops. For most travelers in 2026, a "round the world" trip using scheduled airlines typically takes at least 50 to 60 hours of pure travel time.

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The shortest flight in the world is a long-established air route between two of the Orkney Islands (Westray and Papa Westray) in Scotland. The distance is a mere 1.7 miles and with favorable winds, the actual flight often lasts less than a minute!

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It's been established that the Pacific Ocean is big ... really big. And with greater distances come greater costs since the plane needs more fuel. Executive Flyers writes that while you could just charge passengers more to fly that distance, this may lead to lots of unhappy customers and airlines losing out on sales.

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The record-breaking flights will take place on Airbus A350-1000s, the airline industry's largest wide-body aircraft. In 20 hours, you could bicycle the entire 200 miles from Baltimore, Maryland, to New York City (and maybe even have a couple hours to spare).

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The Loganair Westray to Papa Westray route is the shortest scheduled passenger flight in the world. Flights on the route are scheduled for one and a half minutes, and actual flying time is closer to one minute. The record for the fastest flight is 53 seconds.

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For comparison, if the 747 at top speed went around Earth's equatorial circumference (to actually fly, it would have to go further, but I'm keeping things simple), It would take about 40.5 hours or 1.69 days.

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Alford was awarded the Guinness World Record for being the Youngest person to travel to all sovereign countries and Youngest female to travel to all sovereign countries at the age of 21 years 177 days.

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Slowest aircraft The MacCready Gossamer Condor is a human-powered aircraft capable of flight as slow as 8 miles per hour (13 km/h). Its successor, the MacCready Gossamer Albatross can fly as slow as 9.23 miles per hour (14.85 km/h).

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The shortest commercial flight in the world is a 1.7-mile route between two Scottish islands. The flight between Westray and Papa Westray near the mainland of Orkney lasts just 57 seconds. It is used by local islanders and even the local banker.

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College Park Airport, US
The world's oldest airport is College Park Airport (CGS), located in College Park, Maryland, in the United States. Wilbur Wright first landed at the field in 1909 to train two military officers for the US Army.

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The simple answer is yes, pilots do, and are allowed to sleep during flight but there are strict rules controlling this practice. Pilots would only normally sleep on long haul flights, although sleep on short haul flights is permitted to avoid the effects of fatigue.

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Long haul flights must have two or three pilots on board.
If there are three pilots on board one will be the captain who flies the plane, the second will be the first officer or co-pilot. The third pilot is the flight engineer.

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The longest over water route in the world is the stretch between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii. Even between Hawaii and Tokyo there are alternate airports available, such as Midway Island (hence the name “Midway”). Going across the North Atlantic, alternates include Iceland and Greenland.

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They usually don't fly over Mt. Everest. Of course, plenty of aircraft are able to get to the necessary altitude. You can look up the ceiling for whatever airplane you're interested in, but for example the newest 747 can get to 43,100 feet/13,100 meter, over 4 kilometers over Mt.

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Most commercial airlines that travel between East Asia and the Americas avoid flying over the Pacific Ocean due to high costs and safety concerns, such as the risk of flying during stormy weather.

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