Tuesday, March 23, 2010
  Fastest team flight around the world - Swiss Pilots sets world record
 GENEVA, Switzerland -- Swiss aviator Riccardo Mortara, 62, and his crew (co-captain Gabriel Mortara , 28, and co-pilot Flavien Guderzo , 26) completed the 36,770 km minimum distance around the world in 57 hours 54 minutes in a 1980 Rockwell Sabreliner 65 jet (the 19,840 to 26,455 pounds/9,000-12,000kg aircraft category) - setting the new world record for the Fastest team flight around the world .

 Photo: The Sabreliner 65 and Her successful Swiss Crew.
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The Guinness world record for the Fastest Solo flight around the world (9,000-12,000kg aircraft category) was set by
Steve Fossett’s time of 67 hours and one minute, which was achieved without stops in the state-of-the-art VirginFlyer in 2006.  Fossett flew alone and nonstop in a custom-built plane. He died the next year in a plane crash.

   Riccardo Mortara (mission commander): “To complete this circumnavigation and establish a new world record for the Fastest team flight around the world is a tremendous honour and the proudest moment of my career. Steve Fossett’s time in this category of plane was a challenge to beat, but I was confident we could do so.

    Mortara flew with two co-pilots; his oldest son Gabriel and Flavien Guderzo. They flew over 33 countries in a 22,928 miles stretch at a mean speed of 402 mph (647 km/h).

   The Rockwell Sabreliner 65, nevertheless proved faster and more resistant than Fosset's airplane with its NASA engineered supercritical wing, making the plane all the more fuel-efficient.    Every stop was carefully timed to take no more than 15 to 20 minutes for the refuels.

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   The start/finish line was to have been Bucharest, but the team has elected to make Geneva the venue, given that its operations base - Sonnig - is in the Swiss city.

Nicolae Buzaianu was the driving force behind the project. Buzaianu is also chairman of Swiss energy company Selectra, which sponsored this world record. Mortara is his personal pilot.

    "Riccardo is my friend as well as my pilot, and I believe in him strongly. I don't think there's any pilot more skilled or as cool under pressure. I believed the world record can be his. I am excited for him, and thrilled to be contributing to this mission," says Buzaianu.

   After lifting off from Geneva, the team stopped to refuel in such places as Bahrain, Macau, Osaka, Anchorage and Las Vegas before lifting off from Montreal for Keflavik, Iceland.

   But halfway there -- and four hours ahead of Palmer's time -- the crew learned of the volcanic eruption in Iceland that forced the closure of the nation's airports.

 "We lost five hours for the volcano in Iceland so that was a mess but except that everything went well. So we recovered that but we had to rush," Riccardo Mortara, chief pilot of the flight said as he stepped out of his charter jet.

    The Eyjafjallajokull glacier, Iceland's fifth largest erupted shortly before midnight on Saturday and diverted the pilots' plan to land in Keflavik for a refuelling stop.

   Mortara and his crew had to turn back to Canada to refuel in Goose Bay, Labrador, where they recalculated the final leg of their adventure in favour of Shannon, then Marrakech before finally landing back in Geneva.

   The volcano eruption, which was the area's first in 176 years, caused the crew four hours in their flight, adding suspense to the adventure.

  On the Net:
Riccardo Mortara - 360 World Record on Facebook
    More information about at the mission and a blog:
www.360world record.com

Riccardo Mortara heads Sonnig SA , a private jet company offering high class charter flights to wealthy elite passengers.     

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