The TAG TransPolar08 flight left England Friday and is attempting to break the record set by Pan American Airline’s 54-hour, seven minute and 12 second round-the-world flight over the poles in 1977.
The Global Express jet loaded 30,000 pounds of fuel in Majuro in just 20 minutes. “The pilot said the fueling in Majuro was much quicker than in his earlier stop (in Whitehorse, Yukon),” Mobil Majuro airport fuel official John Hawley said.
After refueling in Christchurch, the twin engine jet will stop at Punta Arenas, Chile, and then Sal in Cape Verde before returning to Farnborough, England on Sunday afternoon (GMT).
“I’ve been waiting since 1984 for the right business aircraft to beat this record,” said pilot Aziz Ojjeh in a statement. Ojjeh is vice president of TAG Group and its subsidiary TAG Aeronautics, a dedicated representative and distributor of Bombardier wide bodybusiness aircraft for the Middle East since 1977.
In July 1984, Ojjeh set the record for fastest eastbound flight around the world in a Challenger 601 business jet with a time of 49 hours and 27 minutes and an average speed of 411 knots. For TransPolar08, he is accompanied on the Global Express aircraft by four pilots, an in-flight coordinator, a flight engineer, and an official observer.
The flight is attempting to maintain an average speed of more than 428 knots to beat the Pan Am record set in a Boeing-747 with an average speed of 423 knots.
The TransPolar08 flight will showcase advances made in jet aircraft technology and fuel efficiency since the 1970s, according to a TAG Group statement. “Fuel consumption for the aircraft is anticipated to be far less than was necessary for a comparable record flight at the time,” the statement said. “Purchase of carbon off-set credits will make TransPolar08 a carbon-neutral flight.”
To beat the Pan Am record, the record-attempt flight must pass over both geographical poles and pass the equator north-south at least 120 degrees of longitude from its south-north crossing, complying with International Aeronautical Federation record rules.
