Circumnavigation world record progression

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	1870	1870	By ships and trains, including a brief period in a French prison, from New York City. 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	1903	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	21 days, 17 hours, 21 minutes and 3 seconds	1928	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	4 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes [21]	10 July 1938	14 July 1938	Lockheed 14 Super Electra (NX18973) New York City; flight operations manager Albert Lodwick[22]
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.	[23]
Col. James Morris[24] and crew (United States Air Force)	1 day, 21 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	[25][26]
David Springbett	1 day, 20 hours and 6 minutes	8 January 1980	10 January 1980	Retains record for circumnavigation using only scheduled transportation.	[26]
Air France	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.	[27][28][29]
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.	[30][31]

Other categories

People or team	Total duration (days)	Departure date	Arrival date	Notes	Reference
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	[32]
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	[33][34][35]
Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg	5 months	9 March 2015	Five months later	Solar Impulse the first round-the-world solar flight in history.	[36]
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.	[37]: 315 [38]
Charles Kingsford Smith, Charles Ulm, and crew	over 2 years	31 May 1928	June 1930	Southern Cross from Oakland, California	[39][40]
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.[41]
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	[42]
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	[43]

See also

• Oceans portal

• List of circumnavigations