Flying across the globe has always been a long-sought dream of mankind; although the experience may be gratifying, it certainly isn’t an easy task. Throughout history, there have been a few cases where brave souls relived the famous travel romance ‘Around the World in Eighty Days by French author Jules Verne in reality. Famous aviators like Wiley Post, who took the first solo flight around the world, and Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly solo worldwide, have engraved their names in the history of the aviation industry for their remarkable feat. But, how long does it take to fly around the world literally? a question that frequently keeps ringing the travel enthusiast with a similar globe conquest dream.
The answer is also quite amicable; it takes around just 51 hours to fly around the world, so if you were just stuck with the ‘how long does it take to fly around the world?’ question and seriously want to cover the earth’s circumference in one go there is your answer. However, the flight time will also be strongly dependent on different factors like weather, the weight of the plane, the weight of passengers in the aircraft, and the starting and landing points. An average commercial jetliner has the capacity to travel at the speed of 550 mph with the range of up to 5,000 miles on single take-off, while the circumference of the earth is about 25,000 miles; it would only take approximately 47 hours for the commercial jetliner to make a round trip across the world, however, taking the travel range and fuel capacity into consideration, a modern-day jetliner wouldn’t be able to make such a huge round trip in one go, so considering the fuel transit point give and take 4 hours, a commercial jetliner would be able to conquer the earth’s circumference in just around 51 hours.
Virginia Atlantic GloblFlyer Around the World Record
If you were wondering if anyone tried to practically test how long does it take to fly around the world question, the Virginia Atlantic GlobFlyer took upon the around the world exploration challenge. The airlines set a record flight in 2005 for non-stop around the world flying; it tools 67 hours for the GlobFlyer’s aircraft to cover the circumference of the equator. The airline’s single-engined Gulfstream G650ER aircraft was flown by the pilot Steve Fosset on the Tropic of Cancer route across the world in just 67 hours. The aircraft was flown at very high altitudes taking advantage of wind which is not quite possible with the standard commercial aircraft, and also burning the military-grade aviation fuel that has a lower freezing point than the standard jetliner fuel.
It took the aircraft about 46.5 hours to fly along with the North and South Poles; the ultra-longe-range jetliner landed three times for refueling throughout the adventure. Although this kind of achievement is not yet possible with standard commercial aircraft, the question does arise that how long does it take to fly around the world in a modern-day commercial aircraft?. Theoretically, it would just take about 45 hours for a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft to fly around the earth’s circumference. With an average speed of 565 mph, the Boeing 747 aircraft can fly along the equator in a straight line within about 45 hours; compared to other competition, most of the passenger-carrying aircraft have the cruising capacity of 500 to 700 mph and the among the top competition the Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 can give the top outmost speed of 644 to 652 mph which can conclude the around the world trip in just 38 hours(25,000 being the circumference miles).
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On the other hand, the Cessna Citation X+, the fastest private jet in the world which can reach the maximum speed of 935 Mach(536 knots- 993km/h or ), can significantly do better in the around the world exploration than the Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 variants. If you are wondering how long does it take to fly around the world in a Cessna Citation X+, the most prominent commercial aircraft for the around the world trip can complete the journey in just 34 hours and 73 minutes with its fastest configuration that can cover the distance of 717 mph. But, it is just a theory, as there aren’t commercial aircraft that can hold the quantity of the fuel that can last a trip around the world, so we might have to be a little patient for the aviation technology to take such leaps.
