A long way from home.

[2016parks]

They have figured out that the longest straight path on Earth you can take, without hitting land, begins in southern Pakistan and ends at northeastern Russia. The path originates in Sonmiani, Las Bela, Balochistan, Pakistan, threading the needle between Africa and Madagascar, between Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego in South America, and ending in Karaginsky District, Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It spans about 19,940 miles. Can any known aircraft do that? Appears that somewhere out in the Pacific, you are the farthest from land, per this neat web site.

https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/rotate/ (https://www.jasondavies.com/maps/rotate/)

[treadigraph]

Well i guess Rutan's Voyager could but I can't think of a production type could stay airborne that long without air to air refuelling...

[Pugilistic Animus]

Most definitely, no

[2016parks]

Apparently a female shorebird was recently found to have flown 7,145 miles (11,500 kilometers) nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand—without taking a break for food or drink. It's the longest nonstop bird migration ever measured, according to biologists who tracked the flight using satellite tags. Also Alpine swifts can do 200 day flights, covering 1240 miles, without landing. Seems that us humans have a bit of catching up to do in the technology area.

[El Bunto]

Apparently a female shorebird was recently found to have flown 7,145 miles (11,500 kilometers) nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand—without taking a break for food or drink..

Their payload-range graph is lousy, though...

It is technically possible to design a conventional aircraft to fly silly distances but it is far from optimal. You're basically burning fuel to carry fuel. Much more efficient to top-up en route. There's also the factor of the maximum possible distance between two airports.

However solar-powered aircraft are now up to 5,000 miles and that's a much more sensible means of long-range propulsion, since you gather 'fuel' in-flight. Perhaps 100 years from now we'll be conveyed vast distances by Sunlight.

[DaveReidUK]

There's also the factor of the maximum possible distance between two airports.

Yes, it's a bit academic planning a route of nearly 20,000 sm when no two points on Earth are more than about 12,500 miles apart.

For fun a few years ago I tried to find pairs of airports that were precisely on opposite sides of the Earth to each other. I found a pair that were within a mile of so of being exactly antipodean, but I can't remember which ones they were now. :ugh:

[Groundloop]

Also Alpine swifts can do 200 day flights, covering 1240 miles, without landing.

Surely if they don't land it is only 1 flight?!

[pax britanica]

The trans Pacific shorebird mentioned seems a bit too remarkable. Although birds migrating apparently do cruise climb as they lose weight to avoid dehydration.

If migrating birds fly at about about 30mph which seems about the norm then in 24 hours it can do 720 miles in still air meaning the trip would take ten days assuming it never sleeps.

So it could do the trip in ten days but can warm bloodied creatures survive ten days with no water and no food , An impressive feat if true but ti seems to be stretching things a bit as we now know that migrating birds do like to have 'waypoints' that helps them with navigation, and that brings another complexity into play how the hell does it navigate 7000 miles N-S so the sun is in a completely different position in the sky as it progresses, half of the airborne time is night time and there are not many land masses 'en route' and even less likely they would be conveniently located along anything like a great circle track