Most continuous time on commercial flights

In 1978, Thomas Crowder set a record for "time spent aboard commercial planes" by traveling back and forth between 91 U.S. cities for 21 days. He never spent more than three hours on layovers between flights.

As far as I can tell, Guinness never recognized this record. Nor can I find evidence that anyone has ever tried to top it.

I know that Guinness tries not to track records that encourage unhealthy or life-endangering acts. So maybe Crowder's record fell foul of this policy. Because spending 21 days sitting on commercial flights seems like a great way to develop deep vein thrombosis.

The Alexandria Town Talk - Oct 27, 1978

Mattoon Journal Gazette - Nov 2, 1978

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Posted By: Alex - Sun Oct 16, 2016
Category: World Records | Air Travel and Airlines | 1970s

Comments

Let's see, 1978, smoking allowed in all sections of the plane. 21 days into 91 cities - that's 4+ flights per day average. Doesn't mention if they are 91 DIFFERENT cities. I suppose he could be counting something more than once, especially if he used one of the more common airlines at the time with two or three 'hubs'.

Posted by Greg on 10/16/16 at 09:51 AM

Maybe he got turned down by his firm for wanting to build a model of a famous plane for the 75th anniversary. So he flew around for 3 weeks on expense account to spend the money anyway and show them up.

Posted by Virtual on 10/16/16 at 01:00 PM

I'm sure the record will never be broken. It'd be impossible these days to pass through 91 TSA screenings in less than two months.

Posted by Phideaux on 10/17/16 at 12:17 AM

Phideaux -- if you pre-booked the entire 21 days of travel, you would theoretically only have to go through the TSA screening once. You'd never leave the boarding gate area.

Posted by Alex on 10/17/16 at 08:53 AM

Surely there is a Guinness category for lounge lizardry in the most consecutive cities, the most airport bars over a given time, or something like that.

Posted by Virtual on 10/17/16 at 11:55 AM

Dunno, but there's certainly a record for the least time used to travel through all the stations on the London Underground. In a way, the exact opposite of this one, and IYAM, a more interesting challenge.

Posted by Richard Bos on 10/20/16 at 01:09 PM

I can vouch for that London contest not being for novices. Seems like I spent my entire first two days there in those confounding tubes, occasionally popping up to hopefully find some landmark.

Posted by Virtual on 10/20/16 at 02:24 PM

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