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Previous aviation milestones
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Adventurer Steve Fossett
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(CNN) -- Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett has joined an exclusive club. By making the first-ever solo flight around the world in a balloon, he takes his place beside the Wright brothers, Charles Lindbergh and others who have made aviation history.
December 17, 1903 -- Orville and Wilbur Wright's 1903 Wright Flyer made the first successful flight by a powered, heavier-than-air machine. Orville Wright piloted the first flight -- which lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.
May 21, 1927 -- Charles A. Lindbergh completed the first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight in history. The Spirit of St. Louis made the 3,610 miles (5,809 kilometers) flight from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France, in 33 hours, 30 minutes.
October 14, 1947 -- A Bell X-1 -- named "Glamorous Glennis" by its pilot, U.S. Air Force Capt. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager -- became the first plane to fly faster than the speed of sound. The X-1 reached a speed of 700 miles per hour at an altitude of 43,000 feet (13,106 meters).
January 10, 1980 -- David J. Springbett completed the fastest around the world flight using scheduled aircraft in 44 hours, 6 minutes.
April 23, 1984 -- Kanellos Kanellopoulos made the longest-ever flight in a human-powered aircraft, traveling 71 miles (115 kilometers).
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Circumnavigation of the world by a commercial jet has gone fastest in the Concorde -- 31 hours, 27 minutes, 49 seconds.
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November 20, 1984 -- Pilot Julian R.P. Nott and crewman Spider Anderson set world altitude record for a pressurized balloon, flying 17,765.75 feet (5,415 meters)
August 16, 1995 -- The Concorde completed the fastest around-the-world flight by a commercial jet in 31 hours, 27 minutes and 49 seconds.
March 1, 1999 -- First successful nonstop flight around the world in a balloon. Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones made the 28,431-mile journey from Chateau d'Oex in the Swiss Alps to the Egyptian desert in 19 days, 21 hours, and 55 minutes.
Sources: The Smithsonian Institution and Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
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