Many might remember how retired AA captain Bill Harrelson broke Max Conrad’s ‘unbeatable’ (Casablanca to Los Angeles) old single engine non stop record last year by flying direct from Guam to Jacksonville, FL. A nonstop trip of over 8000nm and an almost incomprehensible 39hrs aloft. Well, he’s at it again by being 24hrs into his nonstop flight from Virginia to Montevideo in his homebuilt Lancair 320, although it won’t break any records. And if you check his spidertrack you’ll see that most of that was over water with no real possible alternates. At his age I can only take my hat off and admire his courage and stamina. Very impressive. This guy will beat a Gulfstream G650 in range….
Still think Max Conrads piston twin engine record from Cape Town to the US (in a Twin Comanche) still stands and has not been beaten. It’s pretty close to 10000nm and literally one of the longest distances you can fly on earth. Go to a grand circle mapper and try to find a distance greater between two points than 11000nm – can’t be done.
Go to a grand circle mapper and try to find a distance greater between two points than 11000nm – can’t be done.
Umm, it can. Wellington NZ to LHR. Perth Australia to JFK.
These people must get a ferry permit and take off something like 50% or maybe even more over MTOW.
A TB20 loaded to MTOW x 1.5 would have a range of nearly 6000nm, and that is without stripping out any internal “furniture”. If you took out the other 3 seats you would get another 500nm or so. And I know the x1.5 is no problem at all and probably x2 would be fine, with a 2500m runway, and that is a 8300nm range.
They either get an enema before departing, or eat lots of British airport food, or have facilities for an in-flight “number two” 
Umm, it can. Wellington NZ to LHR. Perth Australia to JFK.
Seems to me that GCmapper goes the “wrong way around” the earth.
According to Wikipedia, the average earth radius is 6371km. So the maximum minimal distance between any two points on earth should be R*pi/1.852NM/km=10807NM. Even if you take the maximum earth radius (to upper bound deviations of the earth from a perfect sphere) of 6384km, you’ll end up with 10829NM, so any distance above that can’t be the shortest great circle distance.
Jason, not if you go the shortest way, which a circle mapper will do. Then it’s just 10111nm between LHR and Wellington. I’ve not been able to find any two points on earth further away than 11000nm. You can obviously go longer, but then you’re taking a detour or going the wrong way. So a 11000nm range jet could fly between any two cities on earth, at least going East.
Max Conrad was waaaaaaaay over gross, to the extent that his Comanche was at a certain point during his record breaking campaign converted from a six cylinder variant to four cylinder variant to improve the weight carrying capacity. Sounds counter intuitive but presumably it was done to improve structural margins, climb rate not being the central issue.
Speaking of long range Comanches, there’s a 260C for sale on Barnstormers. 1400 lbs useful load, 90 gallon tanks on some of them, 60 gallons on others. Link Is that a little Swiss flag on the tail?
Still think Max Conrads piston twin engine record from Cape Town to the US (in a Twin Comanche) still stands and has not been beaten.
Didn’t Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan circumfly the Earth non-stop in a piston twin? 40.212km according to the FAI.
They must have been good buddies to live together in a J3 for a month!
There is a modified Mooney M20E in Switzerland, which has an endurance of I believe close to 18 hours. Was modified for an around the world trip which included a Hawaii-California Leg. I think without the portable tanks it has 15 hours or 1500 NM Endurance.
Mind, all Ovations can do that with the Monroy tank option.
And there was that Twin Commanche which had about 11 hours and did St-Johns – Jersey in one stretch, also Sal-Recife and other such things. I believe it did actually carry a toilet on those long trips.
Personal endurance is the thing…
Since a nautical mile is defined (originally) to be 1/60 of a degree of the earth’s circumference, it is impossible for two points on earth to be further apart than 180*60=10800 NM!
