AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019 - 69

two cities of your choice. The
minimum distance between
selected cities must be 400 km
(249 statute miles). A pilot can
seek to break an existing record
or establish a record between
two cities for which a record has
yet to be set-and there are many
of these. A popular city-to-city
record is from Kitty Hawk, North
Carolina, to some other place, or
vice versa.
You might ask what motivates
people to spend the time, money,
and effort required to break or
establish a world aviation record.
The military uses world records
to convincingly demonstrate an
aspect of performance supremacy
and to boost national prestige.
Airframe manufacturers similarly use world records to gain
recognition for the superiority of their aircraft. When Ted R.
Smith designed the Aerostar during the 1960s, he was convinced
that it would be the world's fastest, piston-powered lightplane.
He decided to prove this by challenging two major world speed
records in the Aerostar's 3,858
to 6,614-pound weight class,
records then held by a Soviet
Yak 11 military trainer. My close
friend, Hal Fishman, news anchor
for KTLA-TV in Los Angeles,
and I were selected to assault
those world records using a stock
Aerostar 601A. Flying N90337 at
25,000 feet around 500- and 1,000km closed circuits in 1975, we
averaged 305 mph and returned
those records to the United States.
Later that year, however, John
P. Harris flew a 435-horsepower,
prototype Bellanca Skyrocket II
and beat our new records. Oh,
well. Records, they say, are made
to be broken.
It is not as easy to explain
why individuals are motivated
to break or set world aviation

records. Pilots might
be driven to do what no one else
before them has done because
of fame, pride, the thrill of an
adventure, or perhaps to attract
attention to a charitable cause.
Unlike Guinness world records
that can be established for almost
any feat you might imagine, pilots
may only compete for world aviation records in certain specified
categories. The NAA, however,
approves and awards U.S. national
records for certain unique feats
suggested and accomplished
by individual pilots. For example, national records have been
set for "Fastest Time to Visit All
Hard Surface Public Airports in
Michigan," "Longest Distance
Flown in a Closed Circuit Below
Sea Level," "Fastest Time to Fly
Around the Border of the 48
States," and so forth.
The first step in attempting to
break or set a world or national
aviation record requires joining
the NAA and obtaining an FAI
Sporting License; the total cost for

both is $50. You can
then obtain the rules and regulations applicable to the record that
interests you. (It's worth the 50
bucks just to prove to your friends
that you are a certified international sport.)
As one who has held
several piston and turbine
Additional information
records, I have learned
about world and
much about what it takes
national aviation
to extract maximum perrecords can be
formance from an aircraft.
obtained from the
But to a greater extent, I
National Aeronautic
Association.
have learned to appreciate
www.naa.aero
the talent and skill of those
who design the aircraft we
fly. Pilots operate the controls and make the machines go,
but in so many cases the accolades really belong to the designers
whose brilliant creations enable us
to extract the performance needed
to set and break records.
AOPA
BARRY SCHIFF has been writing for

AOPA Pilot since 1963.

Visit the author's website
www.barryschiff.com
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 69
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2019

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