Two Pilot Friends In US Break Aviation Record, Fly Across 48 States Sharing Borders

A truly spectacular feat was done by two pilot buddies, who also set a world record as a result of their achievement.

According to the Guinness World Record, the fastest journey by plane through all 48 contiguous states is 1 day, 14 hours, and 13 minutes and was achieved by John Skittone and Robert Reynolds (both USA) from May 17 to 19, 2023.

The team decided to break this record for four reasons: personal accomplishment-while accomplishing a longstanding bucket list item to visit all 48 states in one trip; to promote general aviation; to demonstrate how easy it is to travel the country in a small aeroplane; and to encourage others to get out and see the world!

"So we just set a Guinness World Record for landing in all 48 of the lower contiguous states. We did it in 38 hours and 13 minutes," pilot John Skittone told TMJ4 News.

Skittone and Bob Reynolds flew their plane to every state in the lower 48, landed, and then quickly took off again.

"The shortest distance we spent between two states was probably about four minutes and that happened twice Nebraska and Iowa and Ohio and West Virginia," Skittone said.

This trip checked off a bucket list item for Skittone.

"You know, for me, it was personal. I have a bucket list. I wrote the bucket list about 15 years ago, and a lot of things on that list were aviation-related places I wanted to go, things that I wanted to see. Well, one of the things on that list - I wanted to visit all 48 states in the same trip," he said.