Longest duration flight in a hot-air airship (BX-03 class, female)

The longest duration flight in a BX-03-class hot-air airship by a female pilot is 1 hour 5 minutes, achieved by Alicia Hempleman-Adams (UK) on 23 April 2024. Hempleman-Adams set off from the town of Bethlehem and landed in Harwinton, both in Connecticut, USA.

A hot-air airship is, as the name suggests, a hybrid aircraft that combines features of hot-air balloons and airships. This means that it has a propeller engine and an aerodynamic lifting envelope like a blimp, including control surfaces for steering. However, unlike conventional airships, the lifting envelope is filled with hot air from a burner, not a pressurized lifting gas such as helium.

The BX-03 class is the FAI classification for hot-air airships that have an envelope with a volume of between 900 and 1,600 m3. That's a large enough capacity to lift a small one-person basket.