I’d been thinking about all the places I’d been in the world over the past few years and I realized I’ve probably gone 2/3 of the way around the world, in two different directions.
Naturally my thoughts strayed to the fictional adventures of Phileas Fogg and the real-life adventures of Nellie Bly, making it around the world in 80 and 79 days, respectively. Of course that was back in the days before aviation. I’d love to try to do it in a week, but it seems to me almost possible to do it in a 24-hour period.
So, my question: Anyone ever hear of someone trying to shatter the record for circumnavigation? And any Dopers want to put up a slush fund to help me try it?
No, seriously - I meant conventional means of transportation, readily available to most of the human population.
Yeah, astronauts routinely complete orbits in a matter of hours now, but it still would be kind of cool to be able to answer “So what did you do over your weekend?” with something out of the ordinary.
I now know what I’ll do if I have several thousand dollars and no idea how to spend it.
I’m going to fly west around the world and arrive the day before I left. I’m convinced if I go really fast, I can do this. Don’t try to talk me out of it.
Well, you’d have to stick with “generally” around the world, staying far North or far South to accomplish it. Even when the Concorde isn’t grounded, it makes no trips around the Equator. No other commercial plane approaches the 1,100 miles per hour speed required to go around the world along the 25,000 miles of Equator with however many fuel stops would be required.
The U.S. Air Force has tried a couple of round-the-world-without-landing flights to “demonstrate their capabilities” (i.e., for publicity) flying both around the major air routes and over the poles, using in-flight refueling to stay aloft. Since the transports they used were in the 600 mph range, they took substantially longer than 24 hours. (The flight that did not go over the poles was even longer because they had to avoid the (then) U.S.S.R. and China, increasing their flight to around 30,000 miles.)
Well, OK, but just don’t try it out of La Guardia. Your incoming flight would probably cause a delay so bad that you’d end up leaving too late to do succeed.
Flight: Ansett Australia flight 8829 operated by:
United Airlines on a Boeing 747 Jet - non-stop
Depart: Washington, DC Dulles (IAD) - Friday, Oct 19 at 6:10pm
Arrive: Los Angeles, CA (LAX) - Friday, Oct 19 at 8:16pm
Meals: Dinner
Flight: Ansett Australia flight 8001 operated by:
Air New Zealand on a Boeing 747 Jet
Depart: Los Angeles, CA (LAX) - Friday, Oct 19 at 9:30pm
Arrive: Auckland,New Zealand (AKL) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 6:15am
Meals: Snack/Brunch
Flight: Malaysia Airlines flight 136 on a Boeing 747 Jet - non-stop
Depart: Auckland,New Zealand (AKL) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 2:40pm
Arrive: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 8:40pm
Meals: Meal Served
Flight: Malaysia Airlines flight 2 on a Boeing 747 Jet
Depart: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 11:55pm
Arrive: London Heathrow, UK (LHR) - Monday, Oct 22 at 5:50am
Meals: Meal Served
Flight: United Airlines flight 927 on a Boeing 767 Jet - non-stop
Depart: London Heathrow, UK (LHR) - Monday, Oct 22 at 8:00am
Arrive: Washington, DC Dulles (IAD) - Monday, Oct 22 at 11:25am
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Breakfast, Snack/Brunch
Can’t seem to get around the layover in Auckland. Perhaps Tokyo is a better option. Anyway, I come up with roughly three days, seventeen hours, chasing the sunset. I’m pretty certain the route selected exceeds 24,900 miles, but if it were an excact circumnavigation, average speed would be around 280 mph. Price is in the $5000 range, US.
Flight: All Nippon Airways 1 on a Boeing 747-400 jet non-stop
Depart: Washington, DC (IAD-Dulles) - Friday, Oct 19 at 12:30 pm
Arrive: Tokyo, Japan (NRT-Narita) - Saturday, Oct 20 at 3:10 pm
Miles: 6763 mi
Flight time: 13hr 40mn
Cost: $1411.30
Flight: United Airlines 837 on a Boeing 747-400 jet
Depart: Tokyo, Japan (NRT-Narita) - Saturday, Oct 20 at 4:55 pm
Arrive: Hong Kong, China (HKG-Hong Kong Intl.) - Saturday, Oct 20 at 8:40 pm
Flight: United Airlines 1 on a Boeing 747-400 jet
Depart: Hong Kong, China (HKG-Hong Kong Intl.) - Saturday, Oct 20 at 9:30 pm
Arrive: Delhi, India (DEL-Indira Gandhi Intl.) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 12:30 am
Miles: 4150 mi
Flight time: (11hr 5mn with connections)
Cost: $1374.39
Flight: British Airways 142 on a Boeing 747-400 jet
Depart: Delhi, India (DEL-Indira Gandhi Intl.) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 1:55 am
Arrive: London, England (LHR-Heathrow) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 6:45 am
Miles: 4169 mi
Flight time: 9hr 20mn
Cost: $1230.61
Flight: British Airways 225 on a Boeing 747-400 jet
Depart: London, England (LHR-Heathrow) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 10:25 am
Arrive: Washington, DC (IAD-Dulles) - Sunday, Oct 21 at 1:30 pm
Miles: 3672 mi
Flight time: 8hr 5mn
Cost: $683.13
Gives us a total mileage of 18,574 miles, 2 days and 1 hour from departure from DC to arrival, and a total cost of $4699.43.
I’m trying to remember which record this refers to, but for some round-the-world records you have to cross the equator at some point for it to count. That ensures you don’t run around the north pole and call it a day.
Won’t work unless you exceed speed of light. Every hour you gain from travelling westbound will get used up by crossing the date line. When you arrive back home, it will be later then it was when you departed - bad luck.
I propose you give your thousands of dollars to me, that’d be a really good idea
LNO, Sofa King, FunkyMcDuck - you guys rock. That’s exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Guess I could have done it myself but it’s a comfort to know there are other people out there that are nice enough to do it and not flame me for being lazy
Another question - what do the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn have to do with it? Do you have to cross them in order for it to be a proper circumnavigation or what?
I think it’s the length of the Tropics (36,787.6km/22,858.8mi) that’s important rather than crossing them. If you go to the north pole, walk ten feet away, and walk a circle around the pole, then you’ve technically walked ‘around the world’.
By referring to the length Tropics, it ensures that you’ve done a “real” circumnavigation. (True, flying directly above the equator might be the hardcore way to do this, but I doubt there are many airfields directly on the equator.)
The route I found was only 18,574 miles, so it wouldn’t have fulfilled the criterion of being longer than one of the Tropics.
