Watch the replay
FAI world record · 18 August 2008

Eleven days, seven hours, around the world

Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik flew a factory standard AgustaWestland A109S Grand eastbound out of New York and back. Eighteen years on, nobody has beaten it.

Watch the replayWhy it still stands
N1US head on in a hangar, rotor blades level and gear down
11 days 7 hours 2 minutes 78 fuel stops, 18 countries Factory standard aircraft Unbeaten since 2008
The record

A record about how little you stop

An average of 136.7 km/h is 74 knots. The Grand cruises at 155. The circumnavigation record has never really been a speed record, it is a record about time on the ground.

11d 7h 02m
Elapsed, New York to New York
144 h
Airborne
127 h
On the ground, 47 percent
143.2 h
Margin over the 1996 record
Where to start

Six ways into the story

N1US in flight, gear up

The Flight

Eleven days as the crew filed them, from LaGuardia to the day they lost at Okhotsk.

Read the days → N1US in the hangar

The Aircraft

N1US: serial number 40 off the Grand line, and the tail number it still holds.

See the machine → The two pilots in the hangar

The Crew

Two in the aircraft, four in Virginia who moved the fuel and the paperwork.

Meet the six → N1US light on the wheels

Why It Stands

The case in numbers, including the comparison the crew published against themselves.

See the argument → The record certificate presented at the AgustaWestland stand in 2008

Sources and Method

What is documented, what is arithmetic, and where this could be wrong.

Check the working →
N1US, the black AgustaWestland A109S Grand, with the Grand Adventure team in front of it
The machine

It went round the world exactly as it left the line

No ferry tanks, no auxiliary fuel, no special dispensation. A five passenger executive fit with standard factory avionics, 213 gallons, and a book range near 400 nautical miles. Bower’s 1996 Bell carried roughly 400 gallons of auxiliary fuel in the cabin.

“In spite of a marked fuel disadvantage the Grand Adventure team hopes to not only break the record but do so in such a manner as to make future attempts unlikely.”grandadventure08.com · August 2008
More about N1US
Why it has held

Four things a challenger would have to beat

Half the record was on the deck

127 hours stopped against Bower’s 249.1. Beating it means beating the turnarounds, not the airspeed.

78 fuel stops on 213 gallons

Every one a landing, a fill and a departure. Rotors running wherever it was allowed.

A day lost and still six days clear

Okhotsk cost them an entire day to construction, an empty bowser and a tower that would not release them.

Certified, not experimental

Flown inside its ordinary certification and below gross weight. Bower’s aircraft flew 300 lb over under a special provision.

From the aircraft

What they filed as they went

“Good morning this is the crew of Helicopter November One Uniform Sierra, finally underway on our Grand Adventure.”
7 August · departing LaGuardia
“A beautiful sunny morning, we had a great departure... soon we will pick up our interpreter for our flight over Russia.”
10 August · 11,000 ft over Austria
“We had to explain to the Credit Card company how a card could be in so many countries on the one day.”
Donna Hickman · 9 August, the command center

Eighteen years, and still nobody has taken it.

Watch the whole eleven days on real terrain, or read how the numbers were put back together.

Start withThe eleven days