Steve’s 70 World Records - A Record in Itself!
We have had a number of requests for information about the photo in our headline banner. Well, it is aviation's very own hero - Steve Wood.
Steve’s 70 solo international FAI World Records is a record in itself as no other British aviator has flown as many record in any kind of flying machine. It even beats the number of aviation records set by the legendary Steve Fossett who holds 51 current world records, of which just 20 are solo records.
In May 2007 Steve officially set three international FAI World Records for Class C-1b, Speed over Recognised Course. All three records were for international flights to and from the USA. The records were from London to New York, Orlando to London and London to Detroit, with the record from London to New York being flown is a time faster than Concorde’s! Of course, whilst the London involved has the Thames river, just like its namesake in England, it was in fact in Canada, but the records nevertheless were truly international.
At the end of July 2007, Steve flew a 10000 mile / 7 day flight around the ‘four corners’ of the USA becoming the first British pilot to be officially recorded for such a flight. But there was much more to this record setting flight - Steve provisionally set a further 29 international FAI World Records during the flight, including two transcontinental records. These were from Vancouver to Bangor and Seattle to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Other records included San Diego to Vancouver, Los Angeles to Vancouver, London to Atlanta etc.
In November 2007, a further 6 international FAI World Records were flown between the USA and the Bahamas. Then in December 2007, Steve flew another 32 international FAI World Records, again between the USA and the Bahamas.
All of Steve’s 70 solo international records have been accepted by the Royal Aero Club as British National Records, and once the records are ratified by the FAI as official world records Steve will really be in the record books being:
No. 1 in the UK for the most aviation world records ever set by a British pilot in any type of flying machine
No. 1 in the UK for the most aeroplane world records ever set in a single year
No. 1 in the USA for the most world records ever set in a US registered homebuilt aircraft
The first British pilot to fly a homebuilt aircraft around the ‘four corners’ of the USA
No. 2 in the entire world for the number of world records set by a pilot of any nationality flying a homebuilt aircraft
Steve has smashed a 56 year old record for the most FAI aeroplane world records set by a British pilot in a single year. The previous record of 27 records was set by T W Hayhow in 1952, flying an Auster Aiglet. Even the legendary Sheila Scott set only 23 world records in a single year back in 1967, so Steve’s 70 records beats this by a huge margin, AND all of Steve’s records were set in a single year - 2007!
The previous total for the number of records ever set by a British aviator, Victor Davies with 62 records, has also been broken. These 62 records comprised only 46 individual records. They also included 30 records which might not be valid under the present world record rules and 16 records which were ‘out and back’ records. In the balloon and airship section another British record breaker Julian Nott, is shown as setting a total of 53 world records (36 still current) but these were for only 7 individual records duplicated in multiple categories for the same balloon / flight.
So in reality Sheila Scott’s total of 37 records set has been up until now the definitive number of individual aviation records set by a British pilot and Steve has beaten this by a long way!
