Solo Flight "Around" the World?

[BPSCG]

This has always puzzled me.

When they say someone sailed a boat around the world or flew a plane around the world or pogo-sticked around the world, or whatever, what do they mean? It doesn't mean you sailed around the earth at the equator, since you can't do that unless you want to carry your boat over the Andes.

Does it mean you have to fly your plane over the equator? Evidently not:

The landing was a huge relief to Virgin Atlantic and ground control officials, who had been distressed along with Fossett about whether he had enough fuel to complete the 23,000-mile journey -- Earth's circumference at the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer or Capricorn, recognized as a circumnavigation in aviation.

Link
So you don't have to even fly the actual distance it would take to fly around the world at the equator, since the earth's circumference there is 24,902 miles. You can shave off as much as 7.6%.

So does it mean you have to keep your plane between the two tropics? Evidently not, since a look at Fossett's route shows he didn't even touch the tropic of Cancer:

What it sounds like is that you simply have to keep your plane in the air long enough to do circles until you've covered 23,000 miles. He could have just circled his Kansas airport until he'd clocked 23,000 miles.

Or if the rule is you have to go through every degree of longitude at least once, he could have just set his rudder and done a few dozen/hundred loops around the North Pole (and get some shuteye...).

What am I missing?

 

[hgc]

Perhaps you're missing the spirit of the thing.

The technical and physical accomplishment is cutting edge, and the idea of circling the world was well served, despite the technicalities that you point out. There are many ways to define "crossing the Atlantic," but Lindbergh flew across the northern part where the distance is considerably less other routes. His accomplishment was still a spirited leap forward.

 

[BPSCG]

Perhaps you're missing the spirit of the thing.

The technical and physical accomplishment is cutting edge, and the idea of circling the world was well served, despite the technicalities that you point out. There are many ways to define "crossing the Atlantic," but Lindbergh flew across the northern part where the distance is considerably less other routes. His accomplishment was still a spirited leap forward.

I'm not disputing any of that - hell, staying up 67 straight hours is amazing by itself.

But if there isn't some rule that he has to travel at least the same distance as the circumference of the earth, or keep his plane between 1 degree north latitude and 1 degree south, or travel the same number of miles above the equator as below, then wouldn't someone who actually did do that have a better claim to circumnavigating the earth?

You can't claim you climbed Everest with no equipment if a helicopter drops you off 500 feet below the summit. Why can you claim you circumnavigated the earth if you took a shortcut?

 

[drkitten]

But if there isn't some rule that he has to travel at least the same distance as the circumference of the earth, or keep his plane between 1 degree north latitude and 1 degree south, or travel the same number of miles above the equator as below, then wouldn't someone who actually did do that have a better claim to circumnavigating the earth?

There is a rule that you have to stay out of the polar zones, which I think is defined as above/below the (Ant)Arctic Circle. And as you pointed out there is a minimum distance you have to fly.

 

[Ladewig]

You can't claim you climbed Everest with no equipment if a helicopter drops you off 500 feet below the summit. Why can you claim you circumnavigated the earth if you took a shortcut?

I see your point about circumnavigation, but the Everest analogy is not really a useful one. From what I understand, riding a helicopter to within 500 feet of the summit and successfully exiting it is probably more difficult than climbing Everest on foot.

 

[Bjorn]

The rules by FAI = Federation Aeronautique Internationale:

The FAI's rules state that a record attempt like this must start and finish at the same airfield and cross all meridians of the globe. What's more the course must not be less than the very precise figure of 36,787.559 kilometres (around 23,000 miles) which is equal in length to the Tropic of Cancer. To allow the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer to catch the vital jet stream winds, the FAI rules don't oblige that record attempts follow the imaginary line of the Tropic itself but simply that the distance flown exceeds it.

That doesn't mean, however, that Steve Fossett could fly across the Poles. The course must also be kept away from the North and South "Frigid Zones", defined as being at latitudes of over 66degrees33minutes.

They have some rules and he followed them?

 

[BPSCG]

The rules by FAI = Federation Aeronautique Internationale:

The course must also be kept away from the North and South "Frigid Zones", defined as being at latitudes of over 66degrees33minutes.

Commonly known as the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.

But why is that?

 

[aerocontrols]

Commonly known as the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.

But why is that?

Let me guess:

1) It enables too much shortening of the route

2) Cold air is more dense, enabling better engine efficiency

3) If you crash up there, rescuing your frozen rear is going to cost way way too much.



Edit to fix quote foulup.

 

[Thanz]

Here you go:

You can pick as many as you like. Happy?

 

[Ed]

Scrooge

 

[Jon_in_london]

Take it easy Edward! Although its British airline it was an American pilot wot done it.

 

[The Fool]

I once owned an Austin Healy Sprite that had over 230,000 miles on it....do I qualify? Granted, I didn't put all those miles on it but if I could track down all the previous owners could we get some sort of award?

 

[Bruce]

My wife is friends with an Anarctic researcher who has visited the south pole. She claims to have walked around the world in 3 seconds. I'll leave it to your imagination as to how she accomplish such a feat.

 

[BPSCG]

My wife is friends with an Anarctic researcher who has visited the south pole. She claims to have walked around the world in 3 seconds. I'll leave it to your imagination as to how she accomplish such a feat.

Okay, 23,000 miles in 3 seconds = 2,760,000 miles per hour.

I'm guessing she had a really really really fast plane.

Since escape velocity IIRC, is about 25,000 mph, how did she manage to avoid hurtling off into space?

 

[Crossbow]

Okay, 23,000 miles in 3 seconds = 2,760,000 miles per hour.

I'm guessing she had a really really really fast plane.

Since escape velocity IIRC, is about 25,000 mph, how did she manage to avoid hurtling off into space?

Er, one does not need a plane to such a thing at the poles.

The woman who is the friend of Bruce's wife was at the South Pole where all of the lines of longitude converge to a point which enable one to traverse all of them in a very short amount of time. Note: this same sort of thing happens at the North Pole too.

By the way, there was a good article the other day in the 'Explainer' section of Slate magazine that gave a synopsis of just how one's travels can qualify for a circumnavigation of the globe.

 

[Bruce]

The woman who is the friend of Bruce's wife was at the South Pole where all of the lines of longitude converge to a point which enable one to traverse all of them in a very short amount of time. Note: this same sort of thing happens at the North Pole too.

Good observation!

But, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that BPSCG already knew that and was being fecetious.

If he wasn't, I'm sure he will pretend to be now.

 

[BPSCG]

Good observation!

But, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that BPSCG already knew that and was being fecetious.

That makes two good observations...

 

[Hutch]

I've flown West (from the USA) as far as Seoul, and flown East as far as Singapore (commercially), so I'm a few hundred miles and maybe one time zone from my Magellan (as I call it).

Of course, it has taken me slightly longer than 64 hours....

 

[Elind]

This has always puzzled me.

When they say someone sailed a boat around the world or flew a plane around the world or pogo-sticked around the world, or whatever, what do they mean? It doesn't mean you sailed around the earth at the equator, since you can't do that unless you want to carry your boat over the Andes.

All it means is that someone still has the opportunity to do it one better, but that doesn't mean this one isn't damn good.

 

[Art Vandelay]

As I recall, one definition of a circumnavigation requires that one travel around the antipode of the starting position. A similar definiton would be that it can be any closed curve, as long there are two antipodal points such that every path between them crosses the circumnavigation curve an even number of times.