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Pilots break world record for visiting all 48 contiguous states

John Skittone and Bob Reynolds broke a Guinness World Record by flying to all 48 contiguous United States in 38 hours and 13 minutes. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records
John Skittone and Bob Reynolds broke a Guinness World Record by flying to all 48 contiguous United States in 38 hours and 13 minutes. Photo courtesy of Guinness World Records

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July 7 (UPI) -- A pair of aviators broke a Guinness World Record by flying to each of the 48 contiguous United States in 38 hours and 13 minutes.

John Skittone and Bob Reynolds took off from Sanford, Maine, and made stops at airports in 48 states, ending in South Bend, Ind.

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Their final time of 38 hours and 13 minutes earned them the Guinness World Record for fastest journey by plane through all 48 contiguous states.

"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 told WTMJ-TV.

Skittone said the feat was a long-planned adventure.

"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.

Another pair of pilots, Barry Behnfeldt and Aaron Wilson, recently completed their own trip to all 48 states and attempted to earn the Guinness World Record, but their time of 44 hours and 7 minutes fell short of Skittone and Reynolds' total.

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