# Next to the airplane, what's the farthest-traveling manmade flying machine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 11, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352 "2011-03-11T23:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/1 "2011-03-11T23:50:04Z")
And by farthest-traveling, I mean cross-continental, as in migrating like a bird. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/2 "2011-03-11T23:56:09Z")
A [VLCC or ULCC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_tanker)? Unless they’re loading or unloading, they’re supposed to be moving constantly at their 14-18 knots between where the oil is and where the refineries are. Over their 10 year average lifespan, that’s a lot of nautical miles. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/3 "2011-03-11T23:59:04Z")
He said flying. Which does raise the question, what flying machines are left after you eliminate airplanes? That pretty much reduces the question to “which flies further, helicopters or balloons?”. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/4 "2011-03-12T00:01:09Z")
I didn’t know oil tankers could fly… For the OP, I think it depends on how you define airplane, and if you’re restricting it to modern vehicles. Zeppelins could do cross-Atlantic flights. I don’t know if modern blimps have the same range. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/5 "2011-03-12T00:01:40Z")
Ballistic missile. (Farther than an airplane, actually.) ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/6 "2011-03-12T00:02:17Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > A [VLCC or ULCC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_tanker)? An oil tanker can fly?:dubious: To answer the OP, I would guess that there are many helicopters that have done as many air miles as most airplanes. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/7 "2011-03-12T00:04:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That pretty much reduces the question to “which flies further, helicopters or balloons?”. There are also dirigibles and rockets. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/8 "2011-03-12T00:05:52Z")
Space shuttle? Apollo 13 I believe has the record for furthest manned flight. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/9 "2011-03-12T00:06:17Z")
I was going to say Voyager 1, but that’s not so much cross-continental. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/10 "2011-03-12T00:09:31Z")
> [@Kalypso](#): > > I was going to say Voyager 1, but that’s not so much cross-continental. It also can’t fly. It was launched by a flying object, but if you actually placed it into the atmosphere of a planet it would fly in exactly the same way that bricks don’t. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/11 "2011-03-12T00:11:02Z")
Unless you are including spacecraft, and you are looking for non-stop, manned flight, the answer is the balloon with a circumnavigation of the earth. For powered craft, a helicopter has gone 3,561.55 km non-stop, and the Graf Zeppelin had traveled 6988 miles. ---
**Author:** ![Kalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/df705f/32.png) [@Kalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalypso)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/12 "2011-03-12T00:20:40Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > It also can’t fly. It was launched by a flying object, but if you actually placed it into the atmosphere of a planet it would fly in exactly the same way that bricks don’t. I would disagree. Voyager 1 can fly, in space, and we have or had some control over its movements. I don’t think it satisfies the OP’s intent though. ---
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/13 "2011-03-12T00:28:18Z")
I should have provided a little bit of clarity. I was thinking about planes as man’s attempt to “fly like a bird” and I wondered if there was another type of flying craft that can make it as far as, say, a cross-continental migrating bird. (TriPolar, I think you figured me out.) ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/14 "2011-03-12T00:29:50Z")
As a bit of a side-track (pending definition of “flying machine”) is Voyager 1 indeed the furthest traveled man made object or has Vanguard 1 (or some other long-lived satellite) done more miles? Voyager is pretty far out, but Vanguard has been zipping around doing almost 11 orbits a day since 1958. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/15 "2011-03-12T00:39:59Z")
I just learned one of those unbelievable but true facts doing some research for this thread. Do you know how long the longest plane flight was in time, distance, the dates, and the type of plane used? Take some guesses before you look. It is a strange one. Two men, Robert Timm and John Cook, stayed aloft for over 64 days in 1958 - 1959 in a Cessna 172:eek: through low altitude refueling from moving trucks. Of course that brings up the question of ‘farthest’ You can’t get much more than 12,000 miles from any place on earth and still be in the atmosphere. They traveled a lot farther than that but the exact distance is unknown and subject to interpretation. Lot’s of flying machines can travel that distance however so the definition of farthest may need to include some additional criteria for the question to mean much. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/16 "2011-03-12T05:35:44Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > As a bit of a side-track (pending definition of “flying machine”) is Voyager 1 indeed the furthest traveled man made object or has Vanguard 1 (or some other long-lived satellite) done more miles? Voyager is pretty far out, but Vanguard has been zipping around doing almost 11 orbits a day since 1958. I was wondering about that. Apparently Voyager is moving at about 37,800mph right now, but that may not have been it’s velocity the whole time. Let’s pretend that’s the average speed though. It was launched on 9/5/77, so that was 12,241 days ago, or 293,784 hours, so it’s traveled 11,105,035,200 (11.1 billion) miles. Vanguard is traveling at, rats, I can only find the orbital parameters. That’s going to take real math to work out. I’ll take a guess that it’s moving no faster than 25,000mph and see how that looks. So Vanguard was launched on 3/17/58, that’s 19,353 days ago, or 464,472 hours ago, so it might have traveled 11,611,800,000 (11.6 billion) miles. These numbers are close enough that the specific speeds may count for the record as it stands today. But Voyager must be going faster, and will soon win the distance record anyway. Vanguard’s got everything else beat in the time category for the next 240+ years. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/17 "2011-03-12T05:57:43Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > An oil tanker can fly?:dubious: With enough thrust? Yes. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/18 "2011-03-12T06:46:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Unless you are including spacecraft, and you are looking for non-stop, manned flight, the answer is the balloon with a circumnavigation of the earth. For powered craft, a helicopter has gone 3,561.55 km non-stop, and the Graf Zeppelin had traveled 6988 miles. A powered aircraft has also circumnavigated the planet: Rutan’s Voyager. If we’re excluding airplanes, does that exclude the Shuttle? It flies. How about hovercraft and ground effects vehicles? I’d nominate the [Caspian Sea Monster](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7638659.stm) as a candidate. And one of the big military hovercraft, probably. There are commercial hovercraft that have ranges over 500 miles. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/19 "2011-03-12T07:30:09Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > An oil tanker can fly?:dubious: As God is my witness, I thought oil tankers could fly! Come on, someone was gonna say it sooner or later. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2011, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352/20 "2011-03-12T07:41:38Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Ballistic missile. (Farther than an airplane, actually.) Actually, the correct anwer is a Cruise Missile. I’m disappointed in the Dope. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-to-the-airplane-whats-the-farthest-traveling-manmade-flying-machine/574352.md?page=2)