How fast do you think you could travel around the world? 48 hours? 80 days?
The answer has changed over time as aviation technology has advanced. Take a look at some of these achievements with us. 
The stories below aren’t a complete list of records. You can find more stories on our Records and Firsts topic page—and new achievements are being made everyday. Maybe you’ll break one of the records below. 

Upcoming

How fast do you think you could travel around the world? 48 hours? 80 days?
The answer has changed over time as aviation technology has advanced. Take a look at some of these achievements with us. 
The stories below aren’t a complete list of records. You can find more stories on our Records and Firsts topic page—and new achievements are being made everyday. Maybe you’ll break one of the records below. 

Upcoming

Soar Together Family Day: Firsts in Flight

Online: Launches March 8
In person: March 9 at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center 

Join us for a family day celebrating firsts in flight, including two anniversaries for first flights around the world by the Douglas World Cruiser aircraft 100 years ago and the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon 25 years ago.

In Person Story Time

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11AM and 11:30 AM
National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC: Tuesdays at 11AM 

Join us to learn about pilot Amelia Earhart.

 
New STEM in 30 Episode

Look at setting and breaking world records in flights, jumps, and beyond, while investigating how other world records were achieved

Preview of Next Month's Theme: Eclipses

On April 8, 2024 a total solar eclipse will cross the United States. Learn more and prepare to experience this rare phenomenon. 

Learn More

Type of Flight:      Across the United States      Across the Atlantic       Around the World

Crossing the United States

1911: First Cross-Country Flight Calbraith Perry Rodgers in the Wright EX Vin Fiz

In 1910, publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst announced his offer of a $50,000 prize to fly across the United States in thirty days or less. Calbraith Perry Rodgers was up to the challenge. 

When Hearst's 30-day time limit expired, Rodgers had only reached Kansas City, Missouri. He continued on. He arrived in Pasadena, California, to a hero's welcome, 49 days after setting out.

More About Rodgers' Plane, the Wright EX Vin Fiz
1923: First Nonstop Flight Across the United States Lieutenants Oakley Kelly and John Macready in a Fokker T-2

U.S. Army Air Service pilots Lt. John A. Macready and Lt. Oakley G. Kelly made the first nonstop transcontinental flight on May 2-3, 1923, in the T-2 transport. They took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, and landed at Rockwell Field, San Diego, 2,470 miles and just under 27 hours later. During the flight, Macready and Kelly faced flying over unknown territory at night and through storms and rain for over half the flight.

More About the Fokker T-2
1932: First Woman to Fly Solo Across the United States Amelia Earhart in a Lockheed Vega 5B

Flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo and nonstop across America. She established a women's record of 19 hours and 5 minutes and setting a women's distance record of 3,938 kilometers (2,447 miles).

More About the Flight

More About the Lockheed Vega

More About Earhart

1932: First African Americans to Fly Across America James Banning and Thomas Cox Allen in an Alexander Eaglerock

Banning and Allen’s flight was different than the transatlantic flights that came before them. The aviators took off with only $25 dollars between them for the journey. Their plan was to raise the money they needed for the next leg of the journey at each stop. They intended to stop in towns where they knew someone—in part to have a head start on arranging lodging and fundraising. This plan was also one of personal safety. Not every place would be welcoming to Black pilots.  In practice, things went differently than planned.  

More About Their Flight
1933: Advancement In Passenger Flights Across the United States Boeing 247-D

The Boeing 247-D wasn’t the first passenger flight across the country, but it dramatically reduced air time from 27 hours to 19.5 hours. Less than a day!

More About the Boeing 247-D

Crossing the Atlantic

1919: First Flight Across the Atlantic with Stops Albert C. Read in a Curtiss NC-4

The first flight to cross the Atlantic Ocean was … a long one. The five-leg flight began on May 8, 1919, at the naval air station at Rockaway Beach, New York. It followed a route to Nova Scotia; Newfoundland; the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic; Lisbon, Portugal; and Portsmouth, England. The entire trip took 24 days. 

The flight was organized by the U.S. Navy who wanted to prove the capability of the airplane as a transoceanic weapon and technology. 

More About the Curtiss NC-4
1919: First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic John Alcock and Arthur Brown in a Vickers Vimy Biplane

Less than a month after the U.S. Navy completed the first transatlantic flight in 24 days, two men completed it non-stop in 16 hours. John William Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flew from St. John’s, Newfoundland and crash landed in a bog near Galway, Ireland.

1927: First Person to Fly Solo and Nonstop Across the Atlantic Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis

Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in May of 1927. After thirty-three hours, 30 minutes, and 3,610 miles later he landed safely at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, where he was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 100,000.

More About Lindbergh's Plane
1932: First Woman to Fly Solo and Nonstop Across the Atlantic Amelia Earhart in a Lockheed Vega 5B

On May 20-21, 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman—and the second person after Charles Lindbergh—to fly nonstop and solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She also was the first person to cross the Atlantic by air twice. Flying a red Lockheed Vega 5B, she left Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, Canada, and landed about 15 hours later near Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The feat made Earhart an instant worldwide sensation.

More About the Flight

More About the Lockheed Vega

More About Earhart

1939: First Transatlantic Passenger Flight Pan Am's Dixie Clipper

Follow along with William John Eck, one of the passenger’s on Pan Am’s history making flight from New York to France. 

More About Eck's Experience

Around the World

1924: First Flight Around the World Douglas World Cruiser

In 1923, the U.S. Army Air Service announced it was going to attempt a flight around the globe. The next year, four aircraft took off to attempt the feat. Only two would complete the 27,553 mile flight. 

It took 175 days, with a flying time of 371 hours 11 minutes. Throughout the journey the crews prevailed against an endless series of forced landings, repairs, bad weather, and other mishaps that continually threatened the success of the flight. A monumental logistical accomplishment, it was an important step toward world-wide air transport.

More About the Douglas World Cruiser Chicago
Pilot Pals Story Time

"Pilot Pals" explores pioneering pilots and aircraft through fun characters your little ones will love.

Hold On Tight, Spider Monkey

Each of the four pilot and mechanic duos attempting to fly around the globe carried a stuffed spider monkey onboard as a mascot. Find out why.

1942: First Around the World Flight By a Commercial Airliner (Arguably) Pan Am’s B-314 Flying Boat

In January 1942 a B-314 flying boat operated by Pan American World Airways landed in New York after making arguably the first around the world flight by a commercial airliner. But when they set out from San Francisco in 1941, they never intended to hold that record. Trapped in the Pacific by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Captain Bob Ford and his crew were forced to return home flying west. It took them more than a month and several tight spots to get their important aircraft back to the U.S.

Listen to the Podcast Episode
1964: First Woman to Fly Around the World Jerrie Mock and the Spirit of Columbus

Mock and her husband Russell loved to fly around the Midwest and but she longed to visit countries she had always dreamed of as a child. When her husband suggested a world flight, Jerrie enthusiastically said why not?

More About the Flight

More About the Spirit of Columbus

Upcoming Lecture on Jerrie Mock

1986: First Nonstop Non-refueled Flight Around the World Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in the Rutan Voyager

Voyager, a unique aircraft constructed almost entirely of lightweight graphite-honeycomb composite materials and laden with fuel, lifted from Edwards Air Force Base in California and returned 9 days later. For their record-breaking flight, the pilots, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, the designer, Burt Rutan, and the crew chief, Bruce Evans, earned the Collier Trophy, aviation's most prestigious award.

More About the Flight

More About the Rutan Voyager

1997: First Woman to Fly a Helicopter Around the World Jennifer Murray and the Robinson R44 Astro G-MURY

G-MURY has flown around the world twice with Jennifer Murray at the controls. From May 10 to August 8, 1997, with her instructor, Quentin Smith, she became the first person to pilot a piston-powered helicopter around the world and the first woman to fly a helicopter around the world. Between May 31 and September 6, 2000, Murray made her second around-the-world flight, becoming the first woman to do so solo in a helicopter.

More About the Robinson R44 Astro G-MURY
1999: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World with a Free Balloon Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in the Breitling Orbiter 3

The success of Breitling Orbiter 3 was based on the lessons learned during two previous attempts to fly around the globe. That experience enabled the Breitling team to develop trustworthy technical systems and a basic strategy that called for Piccard and Jones to pilot their balloon to altitudes of over 30,000 feet, where jet stream winds would drive it across the Pacific at speeds of over 100 miles per hour.

More About the Breitling Orbiter 3
The Most Famous Failed Attempt

On June 1, 1937, Earhart began an eastbound round-the-world flight from Oakland, via Miami, Florida, in the Electra with Fred Noonan as her navigator. However, Earhart and Noonan never completed their journey and were declared lost at sea on July 19, 1937 following a massive sea and air search.

More About Earhart

Last Month's Theme

Explore stories of collaboration, whether two governments working together, or individuals travelling to foreign countries. 

 

STEM in 30 Episode

In this 30 minute video, we’ll look at how we create and foster international collaboration here on Earth and how it relates to space exploration.

Soar Together Family Activities

Discover how people from all corners of the world work as a team to share their ideas and talents to push forward air and space innovations! 

Jump to a Section:      Space      Air

In Space

Handshake in Space

The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the first American-Soviet space flight, docking the last American Apollo spacecraft with the then-Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

Learn More about Apollo-Soyuz
International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE)

This space telescope gathered astronomical data in the ultraviolet range of the spectrum from 1978 to 1996. It was a partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency. 

The instrument collected spectral data in real time and was capable of being operated at one of two ground stations: in Madrid in Spain and at Goddard in Maryland. From Halley’s comet to supernovas, star forming regions and other galaxies, IUE studied a variety of celestial objects.  

Check Out This Related Object
Chilean Observatories

Largely due to the nearly perfect dry and clear conditions, particularly in the Atacama Desert in Chile’s northern region, today Chile contains the vast majority, around 70%, of the world’s large ground-based telescopes. Most Chilean observatories constructed in the last 60 years are operated by North American and European nations. For their access to Chile’s pristine skies, these international collaborators agreed to reserve 10% of observing time for Chilean astronomers, a percentage that many argue is not adequate. The number of Chilean universities offering PhD degrees in astronomy has increased in the last decade and the number of professional astronomers working in Chile has tripled in that decade alone. At the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, all of the data will be made available to both Chilean and U.S astronomers which should aid the growing number of astronomers in Chile.

Learn About Some of the Astronomers That Work in These Observatories
Artemis

Last year, NASA announced the first human beings to venture into deep space since the Apollo 17 astronauts in December 1972. It is an honor to be selected for this crew, so why would a United States agency give up one of the seats to a Canadian?

Artemis, which aims to establish a permanent human presence on and around the Moon, is an international project.

Read More
International Space Station

The International Space Station has been in orbit for 25 years. It is a partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries. 

 
Learn More About Space Stations

In the Air

Berlin Airlift

For 18 months, American and British aircrews literally flew around-the-clock bringing coal, food, medicine, and all of the other necessities of life to the 2 million inhabitants of war-ravaged West Berlin.

Learn More About the Berlin Airlift

While the examples above are collaboration between international governments. However, sometimes individuals and communities from other countries played a critical role in events in another nation. 

Eugene J. Bullard

Eugene Jacques Bullard is considered to be the first African-American military pilot to fly in combat, and the only African-American pilot in World War I. Ironically, he never flew for the United States. After World War I had begun in the summer of 1914, Bullard enlisted in the French Foreign Legion.

Learn More About Bullard
Bessie Coleman

Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. In the 1920s, getting a pilot's license as a Black woman in the United States was impossible; so Coleman went to France to get her flying certification. On June 15, 1921, Bessie Coleman was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license. She determined she needed more training to safely perform barnstorming stunts and someday operate her own flight school. She returned to Europe in early 1922 and trained for two months in France and ten weeks in Berlin, Germany, where she flew with German military aces.

Learn More About Her Time in France and Germany
Lafayette Escadrille

Lafayette Escadrille holds a unique place both in the history of World War I and in the history of aviation overall. Most notably, the Escadrille was composed of American volunteers who chose to fight for France a year before the United States’ official entry into the Great War in April 1917.

Read More about Lafayette Escadrille
Li Xiaqing

A literal movie star who learned to fly with the aspiration of serving her country. Born in 1911 into a rapidly changing China, she took flying lessons in Switzerland and the United States before returning to China in the 1930s. Despite being grounded by her home country during the war, she still found a way to use her skills in the war effort barnstorming across the US raising money for China.

Learn More About Li Xiaqing