Farthest distance flown in a hot-air airship (female, FAI approved)

The greatest distance covered in an airship (World Air Sports Federation class BX-03) by a female pilot is 20.447 km (12.7 miles) by Alicia Hempleman-Adams (UK) over Connecticut, USA, on 23 April 2024. She covered the distance in just 1 hour 5 minutes and rose 1,261 m (4,137 ft), thereby also claiming the women's altitude and duration records in an airship.

Unlike hot-air balloons, hot-air airships have rudders and a means of forward propulsion, which means they are steerable. "With controls for speed, altitude and navigation, you feel like you really need three hands," Hempleman-Adams told the BBC after landing. Her father – the adventurer Sir David Hempleman-Adams – is a former holder of the men's record in the same class, and in the same airship he used 20 years earlier. He formed part of his daughter's support crew on the ground.

The BX-03 category denotes an airship with a maximum volume of 900 to 1,600 m³. The absolute farthest distance flown in any airship is 6,384 km by Germany's Hugo Eckener, who flew from Lakehurst in New Jersey, USA, to Friedrichshafen in Germany in November 1928 on board the LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin – a BX-10 airship, with a volume of over 100,000 cm³.