Farthest distance flown in a balloon

The official FAI distance record for a manned balloon is 40,814 km (25,361 miles) set by Bertrand Piccard (Switzerland) and Brian Jones (UK), who piloted the Breitling Orbiter 3 from 1 to 21 March 1999.

For comparison, the length of the Equator is 40,075 km. (24,902 miles). Piccard and Jones’ flight was also the first circumnavigation of the globe, after years of attempts, an indication of the difficulty of the feat.