Around the World in 11 Days

After two years of planning, Fedor took off from Northam Airfield in Western Australia on 12 July 2016. He then flew solo around the world for 11 days 4 hours and 20 minutes before landing back almost exactly where he started. In a quirk of meteorology that Konyukhov’s team called a “billion-to-one chance”, after traveling 33,521.4km around the Earth Konyukhov literally flew over his original take-off field before landing safely back in Western Australia a few hours later. Konyukohov survived freezing temperatures, faulty oxygen cylinders, and thunderstorms during the flight, which was made in a specially built balloon that was 10-times bigger than a standard balloon. He slept little, in micro-sleeps for mere minutes or even seconds, and lost 11kg during the voyage.