We Tried the World's Shortest vs. Longest Flight

The shortest commercial flight in the world can be flown in less than two minutes between two islands in the north of Scotland. And the longest flight in the world is a grand total of 19 hours flying non stop between Singapore and New York. So join us as we travel to opposite sides of the globe to experience both flights.

Good morning from the Orkney Islands. This small chain of islands sits just north of mainland Scotland and as you can tell, it's not a very busy place considering that I am filming this in the middle of the road. The Orkney Islands has a total population of just over 20,000 people. The specific island that we're on today.

Is called West Strait, which by the way is stunning. The rugged beauty of the coastline and the wildlife make it worth coming here, even if you don't enjoy flying quite as much as we do.

Our taxi should be here to pick us up any minute.

Bye.

Thank you.

Nate from the future here. I wanted to let you know that in between flights we are going to be revealing a secret project that we have been working on for months now. So stick around.

No, wait. Is this the airport?

This is terminal one, yeah.

Are we the only ones here in the meantime?

It's just the work of the new year.

Good thing we got here early. We gotta check our bags 10 minutes before departure.

Are you the security as well?

Just wait, you'll see.

Huh.

Stewart is a hoot.

Whoa, you look official now.

It needs to be pretty obvious.

It's a good thing we packed light for this trip.

That is the main Runway and that runs east, east, west. There's a grass Runway that runs down here.

A grass Runway? Yeah.

Well, if you look at it, we have this here. 0927 and 1331. Well, wind, as long as there's no water log, he'll land on that. If the wind's too much for him to land on the side, I think it's 30 knots crosswind. Anything more than that, he wants to land a different way.

Is this air traffic control?

This is basically it.

So our flight's departing at 8:52 and we didn't get picked up until 8:20, which was slightly concerning to me. But I just learned that the flight actually lands at 8:45 and then we depart again at 8:52. So it's almost more like a bus. The flight starts in Kirkwall, it comes here to Westray, then it goes to Papa Westray and back to Kirkwall.

And.

And if you're going to one of the destinations, you may just stop at the other ones and never get off. The plane, if that makes sense. So, like, when it stops, some people get on, some people get off, some people stay on the plane.

I sit. Wow. Kara is not going to like this. In case you're new here, Kara's not a big fan of small planes, and this was definitely my idea. How you feeling?

This plane is so tiny.

What's one thing people don't know about this flight?

One of the pilots who used to be here reckoned if the wind was in the right direction and the right strength, he could fly backwards the whole way to Par.

True. And you're right.

And he could do it because of weight issues. He's just going to take the two of you over to Papi and then.

Come back and collect the carport passengers.

Okay, See you. Thank you, Stuart. It was a pleasure.

Great. This is crazy. Maybe I'll get off when you get to Papi. Okay, get off when we get there.

I won't forget. Don't worry. Here we go.

Our total flight distance today is only 1.7 miles.

It's going to be the most well documented shortest flight of all time.

The time of the flight can vary anywhere from over two minutes to the fastest flight, which was 53 seconds.

We're timing from wheels up to wheels down today to see exactly how long our flight takes.

I can't tell if we're taking off or landing.

To put the distance of this flight in perspective, the longest Runway in Singapore, where we're going next, is 2.4 miles, making that Runway almost a mile longer than this entire flight. I'm pretty proud of myself. This is the least service I've ever been on a small plane.

This is actually crazy. I think we might already be landing. So nuts.

The reason this crazy short flight exists is not for flight enthusiasts like ourselves. It's for the locals who live here. The islands are connected by ferry, but those can take hours and often get canceled by bad weather. So the government actually subsidizes these flights for the locals so that they can cheaply and efficiently get around. 2 21. 2 21. Since the government subsidizes these flights, these tickets were super cheap, making this flight not only the shortest, but the cheapest flight we've ever, ever taken.

There was the world's shortest flight. It was as quick as they say it is.

Also, this is baggage claim. Here are the locals, Amazon packages, the royal mail, and our suitcases.

This whole experience has been so funny. The locals, it's just so normal. Like, we have all of our cameras going. We're like, wow, this is so cool. And they're all just like, it's another day.

Where's my Amazon stuff?

With that said, everyone has been so nice from Stuart back on Westray to the three locals that we were flying in with. One offered us a ride, but we actually had no clue where we're going. So we just said another thing I.

Love about all the locals both here and on Westray is everyone is a tour guide. Like, everyone knows all the history, where all the best restaurants are or where the only restaurant is. And they're all just so happy to tell us. Like, oh, you have to do this. You have to see that it's a sweet little community.

And now the plane is heading back to West Ray to pick up the passengers that we left behind. We are spending the day here on Papa West Ray, but we will see you on the other side of the world to start the world's longest flight.

We have lived a lot of life since you saw us last. First we attempted to cross the English Channel on electric surfboards. Then we flew Singapore first class suites, walked all the way across the country of Singapore, lived with the Mentua tribe in Indonesia and explored our 105th country of Brunei. And today we are back at the Changi airport to board the world's longest non stop flight. Do you have a lounge to visit? This is a pretty different experience than waiting on our last flight. Oh, you look official now. I kind of miss those guys.

Cheers. This lounge is so nice and they're so much fun. It's also way warmer. I'm very happy right now.

On today's flight, we will be flying flying from Singapore to New York which covers a distance of almost 10,000 miles and has a flight time of over 19 hours. I did the math and this flight is over 500 times longer than the one that we just took.

Hello. Hello.

Thank you. It is crazy to think that with the thousands of people walking through this airport, we're getting on the longest flight of anyone. And I could not be more excited. I wouldn't trade some seats with anyone in this entire airport.

Same.

And the good news is when we get to the US it's going to be night time. So the goal is pretty much just to stay up on this flight as long as we possibly can. So that way we are exhausted when we get back to the US and our bodies go back to the right.

Time zone. Nate from the future again, I am so excited to show you these shirts that we have been working on for the past couple of months. Normally we don't do merch. But I am super proud of these. We've created over 300 variations of the same shirt that have airport maps of the 300 largest airports all around the world. I'm not sure that anyone has ever created 300 variations of a T shirt. We actually had to create custom technology in order to be able to do this because these shirts are super customized. In the upper right hand corner, you have the three letter airport code. In the middle, you have the airport map with the runways. And then down in the bottom right hand corner, you have the Runway numbers and the airport name. So you could either get a shirt that represents your home airport like the one I'm wearing, or let's say you went on a really fun trip and you want to remember that, maybe get a T shirt from that airport, like say, where you started the world's longest flight. That's sin. That's the Singapore airport code. We didn't just put SIN on a T shirt for no reason, but it only gets better. You can actually get one of these shirts for free. We developed these shirts with our team over at Fair Drop, and if you don't know what Fair Drop is, it's the app that we created to help you find super cheap flights. The way it works is you download the app, you become a member, and then you set your travel preferences. Every day we search the Internet for the best white deals, and when we find one that meets your travel preferences, we send you notifications so that you can book it and save a ton of money on your next flight. And right now, we are bringing back the best deal we have ever offered over at Fair Dog. It's the same one we did last Black Friday, and that is 50% off our business class plan. So it normally costs 99 a year. Right now it costs 49 a year and you get a free T shirt. You can choose between black and white and customize it with whatever airport you want on the back. So, I mean, it's one of 300. Oh, I just realized I forgot to explain the front of the shirt. This is the Fair Drop logo. But our hope with that is that it's going to bring together this awesome community that we have online in person. So if you get this shirt, wear it to the airport, and if you see somebody else with this logo on their chest, then you know you can go connect with that person as a fellow traveler. And if you need someone to talk about nerdy miles and point stuff with, you can probably do it with anyone wearing this T shirt. There's a link in the description below to take advantage of this limited time offer. And there will also be a QR code here on the screen for those of you watching on the tv. Okay, now it is time for the world's longest flight.

I am exhausted from our last month of travels, but it honestly makes me even more excited about this flight because when else do you get to just completely veg out, prop your feet up, eat good food and watch movies for 19 hours guilt free? That's exactly what I'm going to do.

There she is, the Airbus A350 900. So in addition to being the longest nonstop flight in the world, the other thing that makes this flight super unique is that there are no economy seats. So the plane is made up of only business class and premium economy. So everyone here feels special today.

Good morning. How are you doing today?

I'm so good. I'm doing excellent. Thank you so much.

Wow, look at that.

These seats are massive.

Home sweet home for the next 19 hours. This will do. The cabin does feel super spacious without any overhead vents. When I looked at photos online, I felt like the roundedness of these seats for some reason made it look old. But being here in person, it feels much nicer. This is actually like a way better seat than I was expecting. I am so excited. Oh, look at the little footwell. It's like over here in the corner. Unique seat design. We have 19 hours to decide how we like it.

It is so wide. Like, you just look so tiny.

I think this is a wider seat than Emorett's first class. Two of me could fit in the seat, no problem. So far so good. 30 seconds in.

I love the bronze details. Up here we have a little cubby that I've already stuffed to max. I have my makeup bag just to freshen up my AG1, my phone charger, my earplugs, my chapstick. They provided us with slippers and socks. No mining kit, just this so far. Oh, here we have the tray table.

It is in the armrest which I've leaned on several times and then it just pops up.

Behind the tray table there's another tiny storage cubby with noise canceling headphones, plus one model. And behind the sliding door there's an outlet. Please just unbuck the aircraft as we'll be closing the door in one minute. We only have one minute, an HDMI port and something that says ipod. Does anybody still have ipods? My right arm has all the seat controls. This is where I can lay my seat flat.

Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Oh. All the bedding is stuck behind my seat, so I'm not going to lay flat right this moment, but eventually I will. And this is part of the unique design of the Singapore business seat is you don't actually lay flat straight. You have to lay flat diagonally. I guess it doesn't really matter, but that feels kind of weird to me. And if you don't know your seat mate or you're just a little tired of them because you spend too much time together, you can just pull this privacy screen.

And pretty much feel like you have the whole place to yourself. And there's a little mirror.

Here we go. 19 hours to new York.

Thank you.

Champagne, packaged nuts, and a little bit of work. It's not all fun and games around here. Okay. Mostly, though.

It already says that we have 18 hours and two minutes remaining. So I guess hour one. Check. Hour number two. The first course of our lunch is being served. Thank you. Jinju. Would you like to have a glass of red wine or white wine? Red, please.

We are going into hour three, and the main course has just arrived. This is the vegetarian option. Honestly, the bread was stale, but can you complain when you're sitting in a seat like this?

I have the Asian grilled tofu, and it looks amazing. Let's see how it tastes.

Tofu's 10 out of 10. This is currently one of my favorite things in the world. Are you so jealous? It's Nate's favorite, too. I'll share one with you.

Very juicy.

Thank you. Power number four dessert. That looks pretty good.

Full. They just gave me this little mini kit. Henha Leggons. What do we have here? Hand lotion, facial mist.

Oh, this smells good. And lip balm. Oh, I like.

We are seven hours in. I got a nice little nap. Yes, that's perfect. Thank you so much. They're serving the same chicken satay that we had in the Singapore Sweets.

She realized there was a vegetable satay option. Sauteed mushrooms, little baby corn, and zucchini with the peanut sauce. I know we're on an airplane and all this food has been kept in weird little hot boxes up there, but it is so good.

It's like crunchy peanut butter mixed with soy sauce and chili oil. I would put this on everything I eat for the rest of my life.

We are 8 and a half hours in, and the true second meal service is just beginning.

It's like we have a tasting menu of all the vegetarian things that Singapore Airlines has ever served. Let me quickly explain. Even though we requested Veg meals. They didn't get the memo. So I'm pretty sure our flight attendants were just finding whatever leftover vegetarian food they could on the plane.

It's like a 19 hour mystery dinner. You just never know what's gonna come out.

This is like better than the first class flight food. I said it.

We're halfway.

That's crazy.

We made it halfway.

Halfway. Wow. I halfway to stop eating at some point.

This is crazy. I feel like that's all we've been doing.

Bathroom?

Yeah.

I'm so tired. It is midnight.

I don't think I've ever said this on a flight before, but there are too many pillows. There are three and there's not room for them. And I don't know what to do. I can't really move my legs, but I am lying flat, which is all that really matters. I mean, compared to economy, it's 10 out of 10.0complaints.

We have 6 hours and 36 minutes left in the flight. My body thinks that it's 12:30am I try to get a few hours of sleep, but not too many. So as soon as we get to New York, I can go back to sleep. At least that's my plan for getting my body back on track. We'll see how it goes. And I have almost finished the season.

Of the Big Bang Theory.

Visa are eligible to use the combat passport application to expedite landing.

Welcome to New York, ladies and gentlemen. Please remain the awake.

Thank you.

Nineteen hours later. You look good for 19 hours.

Really? Yeah. I feel very sleepy.

It felt surprisingly normal. Like we ate food, we watched movies.

Oh, we ate a lot of food. Way more.

I guess we got an extra meal and then I got extra sleep, but that was the only difference. That did not feel like 19 hours. That was so much fun. Okay, before you go, I wanted to remind you about the fair drop sale and the T shirts because this will only be going on for a limited time. There is a link in the description below and also a QR code here on the screen. I didn't think I could be this excited about making T shirts. I've never been a big merch fan, but I am super proud of these. They're printed on really nice stuff. I hope you love them.

Sam.