AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019 - 66

HOWARD HUGHES

(right) and his
crew of four are
greeted by 25,000
spectators at Floyd
Bennett Field on
July 14, 1938, after
girdling the globe
in 3 days, 19 hours,
14 minutes, 10 seconds in a modified
Lockheed Model 14
Super Electra.
66 | AOPA PILOT May 2019

A similar but more pragmatic
spirit motivates some pilots to fly
higher, faster, and farther than
their predecessors, resulting in
spectacular aeronautical achievements. Consider, for example,
Timothy Gardner and James
Payne's 2018 flight over Argentina
to 74,334 feet msl in a glider, four
statute miles above the ceiling of
a Boeing 787. Also incredible is
Mario Pezzi's climb to 54,046 feet
msl in an Italian, normally aspirated, piston-powered Caproni
biplane-an astonishing feat that
has stood unbeaten since 1938.
During the early years of powered flight, performance claims
were made all over the world.
Many were demonstrably accurate,
while others were blatant exaggerations. It became evident that some
orderly method had to be developed to substantiate and keep track
of performance gains in aviation.
In 1905, representatives from
eight countries-including the

a place where any pilot would be
proud to see his name included.
Female pilots might become agitated, however, to discover that
some of their world records in the
balloon and glider classes of aircraft are segregated from their
male counterparts, the chauvinistic implication being that women
pilots are incapable of successfully
competing against men.
World records are grouped
according to various classes and
subclasses of aircraft so that glider
pilots do not compete against
astronauts, and model airplanes
do not compete against jetliners. Do not snicker at the notion
of world records for model aircraft. This is a very serious field
of endeavor as evidenced by some
truly remarkable performances.
Russian modelers Valery Myakinin
and Alexander Vasiliuk kept their
radio-controlled glider aloft in
2009 for 39 hours, 3 minutes.
American Maynard Hill inspired
his model airplane

BOTTOM: AP IMAGES

Mario Pezzi's climb to
54,046 feet msl in an
Italian, normally aspirated,
piston-powered Caproni
biplane has stood
unbeaten since 1938.

United States-formed
a world federation to
draft rules governing
world record attempts.
This organization, the Fédération
Aéronautique
Internationale (FAI),
is headquartered in
Lausanne, Switzerland,
and has more than 100 member nations.
The FAI is charged with
verifying and approving all successful world record attempts and
rewarding pilots with its coveted
Diplôme de Record. The task of
timing, measuring, and supervising record attempts, however, is
delegated to the national aero club
of the country in which a record
attempt is being made. The FAI
affiliate in the United States is the
National Aeronautic Association
(NAA) in Washington, D.C. In
Russia, pilots compete under
the jurisdiction of the Federatsia
Aviatsionnogo Sporta Rossi, while
Japanese pilots work
with Nippon
Ko k u Ky o k a i .
The international rules for
setting and breaking world records,
however, are the
same everywhere,
thus allowing
pilots of all nations
to compete on a
level playing field.
A physical
book of world aviation records is no
longer published,
but existing world
re c o rd s a re d i s played on the NAA's
website. This digital compendium lists
some truly astonishing accomplishments,
AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019
