Planes That Made It Round The World

Inspiration will be Hong Kong's first homebuilt aeroplane to go around the world.

Don Taylor's Victoria, named after a ship in Magellan's fleet which circumnavigated the earth, was the first homebuilt aircraft to make the trip.  The Thorp T-18 was modified to make the journey with extra fuel tanks that extended its range more than four times.  Taylor also had to navigate around no-fly zones over the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Communist China.

Voyager's non-stop round-the-world flight took 9 days.  The crew, Jeana Yeager and Dick Rutan, flew in a cabin about as big as a fridge.  The plane built of composite materials was designed by Burt Rutan, who also designed Space Ship One.

The genesis of Jon Johanson's flight around the world occured over Cambodia, where he decided that if his RV4, a stock kit aircraft not designed for extremely long distances, could make it to his destination in southern Australia, then he could go around the world.  He made the modifications and the rest is history, then going for another two round-the-world trips, one via the North Pole.

The Glasair II plane did make it around the world but the pilot missed one leg from Hawaii to California, making Hans Gutmann's journey technically excluded.  His plane was flown by another pilot for that leg.

Air-inovator Burt Rutan again took to the marathon journey around-the-world, this time both designing and flying his plane and flying with another pilot in a separate Long-EZ plane, Mike Melvill.  The unique looking small aircraft employs unusual design but has been the foundation of many circumnavigations.

The Lancair IV is another popular plane for pilots to circumnavigate the globe.   Bill Harrelson flew over both the North and South poles in his modified Lancair, setting a cracking 24 day time.  He has also challenged engineering to fly his plane from Guam in the western Pacific to Jacksonville in Florida, a 13,059km journey.

The tiny Kitfox IV was flown by Spanish pilot Michel Gordillo from Madrid to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA to a fly-in convention for kit-plane owners.  The Kitfox has a fairly short range and the trip was over parts of Siberia in Russia which presented some difficulties.

The Mustang II has enough room to seat two, but as Ike Bartlett was trying to squeeze the most range from his plane he decided to fill up the space beside him with a fuel tank, limiting him to his seat and the dashboard.

Harry R Anderson took his Lancair Columbia to all seven continents, landing in Antarctica as part of his solo round-the-world flight.

Norwegian Calle Hedberg nicknamed his Ravin 500 Troll Air for a flight he called a "holiday", a leisurely 54,680 nautical mile circumnavigation of the globe which is more than twice the earth's waistline.

The older model Swearingen SX300 took an unusually long route around the world, piloted by Swiss Heinz Peier, who crossed the atlantic several times in his three year trek.  He was even arrested in Indonesia after flying through its airspace without warning in his homebuilt.