By Michael J. Carroll
In 1995, I had the pleasure of working on a very special Concorde charter that holds the record today for the fastest circumnavigation of the planet by a commercial or private airplane. At the time, I was in charge of Air France media relations for the U.S. market, based in New York City, and was asked to act as the liaison and project coordinator for an American attorney who had a fascination for the Concorde and had chartered many trips both on AF and BA. His ultimate goal was to break the world speed record for circling the globe, a record that was then held by a private Gulfstream G-IV aircraft. He dreamed big.
It took many months of planning, but everything came together on the morning of August 15, 1995 as a Concorde landed at JFK from CDG and with it, very big expectations. The aircraft was adapted to accommodate our trek: since the cockpit crew had to stay onboard for the entire journey for the record to be official, we had 20 seats removed from the plane and replaced with cots for sleeping. The flight attendants were rotated on and off.
Before take-off, the crew determined there was one seat available for a stand-by passenger, and I was the lucky number one on the list. With passport but no luggage in hand, I boarded the plane for the ultimate non-rev experience.
Our itinerary was carefully plotted to achieve the highest speeds, so we planned for minimal flying over land. We had to get special permission from the Saudi government to fly supersonic over the desert and from the Russian government to fly supersonic over Siberia. Naturally, the Russians withheld their approval until our takeoff, but they did grant it.
Our journey took us from JFK to Toulouse (birthplace of the aircraft) and then to Dubai, Bangkok, Guam (where the United States Air Force handled and re-fueled the aircraft), Honolulu, Acapulco and then back to JFK. It was a total of 22,859 miles and took 31 hours, 27 minutes and 49 seconds, a new world record.
The flight was sponsored by an American beer company who gave away the 80 seats (except mine) to sweepstakes winners. Some of the passengers had never been on a plane before. Every leg and every re-fueling stop was catered so it was non-stop eating, toasting and drinking.
The record stands to this day and is shown on the Guinness World Records website.
I only slept for about thirty minutes on the last leg, ACA to JFK, since it was a work trip and there were a lot of details to look after. The memories that remain to this day center on the pride I had to work for a company that could accomplish this. It was the top-notch professionalism of the hundreds of Air France professionals that worked on this project. I still have my paper boarding pass for AF 1995; it says:
“From NEW YORK / JFK, to NEW YORK / JFK.”
Michael J. Carroll
New York City
August 12, 2024