Flying 3,000km in wave at night

At 2.30am on the night of 22 June 2023, Gordon Boettger and his friend Bruce Campbell took off in a tricked-out, high-performance, self-launching sailplane. They launched out of Minden, Nevada into the night sky wearing heavy down suits and night vision goggles.

Using a fully retractable jet engine they connected with wave after climbing just 1,100m. They then started flying laps up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains in the western US. By the time they landed, 17 hours and 25 minutes later, they had flown 3,058 kilometres via five turnpoints. 

Four and a half months later, on 5 November 2023, they launched at 9.03am and flew for 18 hours and 30 minutes landing in the dark at 3.30am. With an early sunset, most of this flight was flown at night! Gordon and Bruce covered 3,143km over five waypoints, averaging 170km/h. This is the longest distance flown by a soaring aircraft!

Sailplanes vs paragliders

Neither of Gordon’s 3,000+ km flights qualify for official...