This is a list of the fastest circumnavigation, made by a person or team, excluding orbits of Earth from spacecraft.
| People or team | Total duration (days) | Departure date | Arrival date | Notes | Reference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juan Sebastián Elcano and crew (originally led by Ferdinand Magellan) | 1082 | 6 September 1522 | [1] | |||
| Francis Drake and crew | 1018 | 13 December 1577 | ||||
| Thomas Cavendish and crew | 781 | 21 July 1586 | 9 September 1588 | |||
| Crew of the Eendracht (originally led by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire) | 748 | 14 June 1615 | 1 July 1617 | [2] | ||
| John Byron and crew | 676 | 2 July 1764 | 9 May 1766 | [3] | ||
| George Simpson | 605 | March 1841 | October 1842 | [4] | ||
| Clipper Marco Polo, Captain James "Bully" Forbes. | 175 | 4 July 1852 | 26 December 1852 | From Liverpool | [5] [6] | |
| Clipper Lightning, Captain James "Bully" Forbes. | 162 | 14 May 1854 | 23 October 1854 | From Liverpool to Liverpool. | [7] | |
| James Iredell Waddell and crew | 394 | 8 October 1864 | 6 November 1865 | CSS Shenandoah from London to Liverpool | [8] | |
| This period is incomplete | ||||||
| George Francis Train | "80 days" (excluding a month in France) | 1870 | 1870 | By ships and trains, from New York City, perhaps inspiring Jules Verne | [9] | |
| Nellie Bly | 72 | 14 November 1889 | 25 January 1890 | Multiple means of transport, inspired by Jules Verne | [10] | |
| George Francis Train | 67 days, 12 hours, 3 minutes | 18 March 1890 | 24 May 1890 | By ships and trains, from Tacoma, Washington | [11] | |
| George Francis Train | 64 days | 9 May 1891 | 12 July 1891 | By ships and trains, from Fairhaven, Washington | ||
| J. Willis Sayre | 54 days 9 hours and 42 minutes | 1903 | 1903 | From Seattle, via Trans-Siberian Railway. | [12] | |
| Andre Jaeger-Schmidt, Henry Frederick, John Henry Mears | 36 | 2 July 1913 | 6 August 1913 | A combination of steamers, yachts, and trains | [13] | |
| Linton Wells, Edward S. Evans | 28 days 14 hours 36 minutes and 5 seconds | 1926 | 1926 | A combination of boat, airplane, and trains | [14] [15] | |
| John Henry Mears | 23 days 15 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] | |
| 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes | 23 June 1931 | 1 July 1931 | Lockheed Vega aeroplane, travelled 24903km (15,474miles), did not cross equator | [19] | ||
| 7 days, 19 hours, 49 minutes | 15 July 1933 | 22 July 1933 | Using an autopilot and radio direction finder, did not cross equator. From New York City | [20] | ||
| Howard Hughes, navigator Thomas Thurlow, engineer Richard Stoddard, and mechanic Ed Lund | 3 days, 19 hours, 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) | 94 hours and 1 minute | 1949 | 1949 | B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II first aircraft to circle globe non-stop with four in-air refuelings, 37743km (23,452miles), 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) | 45 hours and 19 minutes | January 16, 1957 | January 18, 1957 | Operation Power Flite, three B-52 bombers, led by Lucky Lady III, supported by at least 76 KC-76 refueling aircraft, 39147km (24,325miles), no equatorial crossing | [25] [26] | |
| David Springbett | 44 hours and 6 minutes | 8 January 1980 | 10 January 1980 | Retains record for circumnavigation using only scheduled transportation. | ||
| 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] |
| 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 | 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] [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] |