Jon Johanson (born 1956) is an Australian aviator known for his pioneering flights in a home-built Van's Aircraft RV-4.
Jon Johanson (born 1956) is an Australian aviator known for his pioneering flights in a home-built Van's Aircraft RV-4.
Johanson was born in 1956 in Warburton, Victoria, the third of four children. His father was a dairy farmer in Bairnsdale, East Gippsland. Johanson had his first solo flight at age 46, following which the family relocated to Horsham, where his interest in aviation grew. [1]
In 1995, Johanson flew easterly around the world and made a stop over flight at Oshkosh, Wisconsin at the EAA. In 1996 he made another stop over flight to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the EAA, then Johanson flew his second around the world flight going westerly. On his third around the world flight in 2000, Johanson set four aviation world records. As he was flying over the North Pole the cold air cracked his windscreen. [2]
In 2003, he made the first solo flight in a single-engine home-built aircraft over the South Pole. After landing at the McMurdo-Scott base he became stranded when the base, not wishing to encourage future private flights, refused to sell him fuel. [3] After a fuel donation by fellow adventurer Polly Vacher, he was able to fly on to Australia, via New Zealand. [4]
In 2004 Johanson was awarded the FAI Gold Air Medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI); it is one of the organisation's highest awards. At the time he held 47 FAI world records. [5] The same year, Johanson was also named the Adventurer of the Year by the Australian Geographic Society. [6]
Johanson is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, although he acknowledged in an interview with an Adventist publication that he was not a "good one". [7] In addition to being a pilot, Johanson is also a qualified nurse, midwife, and carpenter. [8]
The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) is an international organization of aviation enthusiasts based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, United States. Since its inception it has grown internationally with over 200,000 members and nearly 1,000 chapters worldwide, and hosts the largest aviation gathering of its kind in the world, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.
James Stephen Fossett was an American businessman and a record-setting aviator, sailor, and adventurer. He was the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon and in a fixed-wing aircraft. He made his fortune in the financial services industry and held world records for five nonstop circumnavigations of the Earth: as a long-distance solo balloonist, as a sailor, and as a solo flight fixed-wing aircraft pilot.
Richard Glenn Rutan is a retired United States Air Force officer and fighter pilot, test pilot, and record-breaking aviator who in 1986 piloted the Voyager aircraft on the first non-stop, non-refueled around-the-world flight with co-pilot Jeana Yeager. He was born in Loma Linda, California, where he gained an interest in flying at a young age. He is the older brother of famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan, whose many earlier original designs Dick piloted on class record-breaking flights, including Voyager.
The Fédération aéronautique internationale is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains world records for aeronautical activities, including ballooning, aeromodeling, and unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), as well as flights into space.
Michael Winston Melvill is a world-record-breaking pilot and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShipOne on its first flight past the edge of space, flight 15P on June 21, 2004, thus becoming the first commercial astronaut, and the 435th person to go into space. He was also the pilot on SpaceShipOne's flight 16P, the first competitive flight in the Ansari X Prize competition.
Paul Howard Poberezny was an American aviator, entrepreneur, and aircraft designer. He founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in 1953, and spent the greater part of his life promoting homebuilt aircraft.
Wing Commander Kenneth Horatio Wallis was a British aviator, engineer, and inventor. During the Second World War, Wallis served in the Royal Air Force and flew 28 bomber missions over Germany; after the war, he moved on to research and development, before retiring in 1964. He later became one of the leading exponents of autogyros and earned 34 world records, still holding eight of them at the time of his death in 2013.
An air speed record is the highest airspeed attained by an aircraft of a particular class. The rules for all official aviation records are defined by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), which also ratifies any claims. Speed records are divided into multiple classes with sub-divisions. There are three classes of aircraft: landplanes, seaplanes, and amphibians; then within these classes, there are records for aircraft in a number of weight categories. There are still further subdivisions for piston-engined, turbojet, turboprop, and rocket-engined aircraft. Within each of these groups, records are defined for speed over a straight course and for closed circuits of various sizes carrying various payloads.
The flight endurance record is the longest amount of time an aircraft of a particular category spent in flight without landing. It can be a solo event, or multiple people can take turns piloting the aircraft, as long as all pilots remain in the aircraft. The limit initially was the amount of fuel that could be stored for the flight, but aerial refueling extended that parameter. Due to safety concerns, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) no longer recognizes new records for the duration of crewed airplane or glider flights and has never recognized any duration records for helicopters.
This list of flight distance records contains only those set without any mid-air refueling.
Sylvester Joseph "Steve" Wittman was an American air-racer and aircraft engineer.
Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki was a test pilot in the Soviet Union, notable for setting twenty-two world records and serving as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
The Sonerai is a small, VW-powered homebuilt aircraft, designed by John Monnett. The Sonerai began to compete as a single-seat, mid-wing, tailwheel Formula-V racer class formed in 1972. The Sonerai soon evolved into a two-seat model called the Sonerai II.
Thomas Paul Poberezny is a retired American aerobatic world champion, as well as chairman of the annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-In and Convention from 1977 to 2011 and president of EAA from 1989 to 2010. He succeeded his father, Paul Poberezny, who founded the organization in 1953.
The Little Wing Autogyro is a series of conventional one and two place autogyros with a tractor engine layout using modern engines and produced by Little Wing Autogyros, Inc. of Mayflower, Arkansas.
The Lesher Teal is a home built experimental aircraft that at one point held seven Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) class is C-l.a records for speed and distance.
Max Arthur Conrad, Jr. known as the "Flying Grandfather", was a record-setting aviator. In the 1950s and 1960s, he set nine official light plane world records, three of which still stand as of 2013. For his efforts, he was awarded the Louis Blériot medal in 1952 and the prestigious Harmon Trophy in 1964. Winona Municipal Airport, also known as Max Conrad Field, in Winona County, Minnesota is named in his honor. Conrad was nominated for the Carnegie Medal for heroism for flying his Piper aircraft in 50-60 mph winds during and after the 1940 Armistice Day Blizzard to locate and help rescue stranded duck hunters throughout the Mississippi River backwaters near Winona. Over several flights, Conrad dropped tins with whiskey, sandwiches, cigarettes, and matches to marooned survivors struggling to survive in temperatures below 10 degrees. Conrad helped direct rescue boats to survivors via his flight paths. Dozens of hunters died as a result of the unexpected storm that saw temps drop from the 60's to single digits and dumped up to 24" of snow.
Jean Boulet was a French aviator. In 1957, Boulet was awarded the Aeronautical Medal; in 1983, he became one of the founding members of the French National Air and Space Academy. He died at the age of 90.
Michel Gordillo is a world record aviator, and the first person to circumpolar navigate the world in an experimental aircraft with a mass of less than 1750 kilograms. He was commander of Iberia Airlines piloting Airbus A319, A320, and A321. In total he has more than 15,000 hours of flight. Gordillo is also a glider pilot, holding the title C silver, and is a member of the Spanish national glider team. He is fluent in Spanish, French and English.
Norman Surplus is a Northern Irish pilot, who circumnavigated the globe in an autogyro, nicknamed "Roxy". His trip began in 2010 and ended on 28 June 2019. In 2010, during the first leg of his trip, Surplus flew over Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North America. In June 2015, Surplus commenced the second leg of his journey by flying through the United States and crossing the Atlantic Ocean to eventually land in Larne, Northern Ireland in August 2015, becoming the first person to cross the Atlantic in an autogyro. In 2019, he completed the last leg of his journey when he finally obtained permission from the Russian Federation to fly through its airspace. He left Ireland on Easter Monday in 2019, and flew through Russia to eventually reach the United States and land at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon completing his circumnavigation of the globe in an autogyro. Surplus's AutoGyro MT-03 is currently displayed at the EAA Aviation Museum and will remain there for the duration of AirVenture 2020. Surplus took nine years to complete his journey around the world, and flew over 32 countries, over a total distance of 27,000 miles (43,000 km). In a 2015 interview with the CBC, while on a stopover at Iqaluit, Canada, Surplus mentioned that the trip should have taken approximately four months but the problems with obtaining permission to fly over Russia, which persisted for three years, derailed his plans.
