Mondo Knows Facts
Fossett flew solo around the world in a balloon
The 2002 flight took 14 days and covered about 33,000 kilometres Fossett launched from Northam in Western Australia on 19 June 2002 and landed in Queensland on 3 July after circling the globe alone. The flight was ratified by the FAI, which requires the balloon to cross all meridians and return to its starting longitude without landing. It was his sixth attempt at the feat, after several failures and one crash at sea. It sits in Mondo's records & extremes collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Federation Aeronautique Internationale
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
โ โ to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: balloons, aviation, records
Fossett flew solo around the world in a balloon: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The 2002 flight took 14 days and covered about 33,000 kilometres. The figure is taken from Federation Aeronautique Internationale, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a records & extremes fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Records & Extremes shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.