Charity smashes flight simulator record
A charity that helps disabled people to learn to fly has successfully broken the Guinness World Record for the longest, non-stop flight in a simulator.
The new record, which involved 100 pilots flying 22,500 miles non-stop around the world, took 200 hours over ten days.
It's helped raise more than £100,000 for Blackbushe-based charity Aerobility, and saw the simulator "fly" across Europe, the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent, around the Pacific Rim before crossing the United States, the North Atlantic and finally returning to Blackbushe Airport.
– Mike Miller-Smith, chief executiveThis is an amazing achievement and we are hugely grateful to everyone that took part – it really has exceeded our expectations.
"The money raised will make a massive difference, enabling us to buy and run the simulator as well as supporting other exciting new projects for the charity.”
Teams of volunteers manned a "Mission Control" 24 hours a day, among them NATS air traffic controllers from the Prospect trade union’s ATCO branch.
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