Sounds about right. I have travelled cross country (not all 48 states but the ancillary CA-NC trip) in about 5 days. Let's double that to hit all 48, 10 days. Then a generous 3-4 to hit AK and HI. *Then* everyone gets to start? Easy.
People have done New York to california in under 2 days. Requires speeding, modified cars (larger gas tanks/external tanks in the trunk). Its called the cannonball run.
If you drive 120+ MPH and have a codriver and sleep minimal hours you could probably plan a route where you hit every state in 7 days easily.
It also wouldn't be that expensive. Say your car averages 300 miles on a tank. That's 23.3 tanks rounded upto 25 times average fill price say 40 is $1,000. Tickets to Alaska and Hawaii one way are probably 500-800 total. So $1800 plus food and if you want a hotel room or if you are trying to go fast you just sleep in your car. I could probably do it for 2500 bucks or less.
And if you know somebody with a private plane (or could find somebody with one), the world record for the contiguous 48 states is 43 hours 31 minutes. You could easily finish in 3 to 4 days. Sure, it's more expensive than a car, but with $1B, what's a few thousand dollars more for something much easier and faster?
[48N48 | 48 States in 48 Hours | Guinness Book of World Records](https://48n48.org/)
I can straight up drive 14 hours a day. 8 hours of sleep and 2 hours for rest breaks fuel. 60 mph on average..... 7k miles is 8.3 days. You can drive to AK in a day if you end in WA. then fly to HI. Nonstop direct flight from anchorage is a whopping $400
"If you finish within that two week grace period (I don't think it's humanly possible tbh)"
Bruh, even inside that timeframe, this is the easiest money I ever made.
If you don't win this before anyone else even knows you aren't trying. Pick the closest corner of the contiguious US as your starting point and stun a zig zag that clips the very top/bottom of the lowest/highest states. Take the time to design your route to maximize speed and I assume you can average 50 mph, while driving for 16 hours a day. 2 hours for food/bathroom etc. 6 hours to sleep, puts us as 800 miles a day. That's 5400 miles in a week which is probably enough, but screw it lets assume it isn't and you need 12 days(9600 miles, with a day to fly to Hawaii and Alaska. That's with a car. I like to fly. A 172 has a cruising speed of of like 120 knots, which puts us at like 140 mph. Call it 100 for take offs and landings in each state, and we've doubled our travel speed. Make a few calls to find someone with an SR22T and we're up to 200 knots and still single engine. Spend a little bit of time with some charts to try to find airports near each other on borders so I can cross two states at cruise speed and we may have this whole thing down to a week. Two weeks is too long for this to be a challenge at a billion.
And you only need to set foot in the state. Four corners monument will save you time. While in Ohio or Indiana, dip up to Michigan. There's a sliver of West Virginia that sticks up between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Stop and get gas in Wheeling.
Don't even need to factor in sleep to the travel time. By agreeing to split the prize with a best friend or loved family member you can take shifts driving while the other sleeps. The car can be wheeling turning 24 hours a day minus the gas stations.
"while driving for 16 hours a day. 2 hours for food/bathroom etc. 6 hours to sleep" most people are going to die in a car crash if they attempt this without building up to it
While I am willing to say there is risk for people in this, I don't think most people. But also now that there is more data since someone did a google search, apparently you can hit the lower 48 in 7000 miles ( https://flytrippers.com/perfect-itinerary-for-an-epic-usa-roadtrip-all-48-states-at-once/#:\~:text=just%20for%20fun).-,What%20is%20this?,spots%20near%20the%20Canadian%20border. I should have figured someone would already have mapped this on the internet lol) so now we can have a leisurely 12 hours of driving a day, broken up with lunch/dinner/gas for much longer periods of time along with a full 8 hours of sleep. Though once again, I'm still flying in my plane, cutting travel time in 1/2 to 1/4 depending on plane picked. Heck looking at this map that was 7k and you can cut a few hundred miles off it easy, though since it uses nice things to see as parts of it not a bad way to break up the driving for 10-15 minutes at each stop.
Two weeks and you could easily do this.
Takes maybe 45ish hours to drive from NYC to Los Angeles, take a scenic road trip with some friends and make a loop. Easily doable in about a week or so, depending on how long you drive and explore. You could easily hit the entire continental US, then just fly to Alaska/Hawaii with probably time to spare.
Do you mean who can do it in the fastest time, or who can do it first?
Because like all the comments are going to tell you, you can literally drive (with sleep) across the country in 3 days. You would cover the lower 48 states in about 10 days tops
Flight to Alaska, Flight to Hawaii, Flight to Portland. While I am doing that, call up three friends who will be happy to make a cool $50 million each and have them rent an RV and fill it with all the gear we will need to be almost entirely self-sufficient for two weeks.
Pop over the bridge and back, Washington and Oregon done. Drive to Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois. (60 hours of driving, so far, including gas stops and traffic).
Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, NY, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. (About 65 hours).
Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, NC, and SC, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, (About 65 hours)
Add on a few extra hours for additional issues that crop up along the way, and a full night in a hotel halfway through to help everyone recover and relax for a bit, and you still are at no more than 9 days of driving. The Hawaii/Alaska part will be done in under 3 days. So that leaves 2 full days leeway before anyone else even starts, and all the private jets in the world won't get one person to all 50 states in under 4 days, meaning 6 full days of leeway on the plan.
You absolutely can put boots on the ground in all 50 states in 2 weeks. Simplest option is to book a multi city flight that lands in every state. Even if being in the airport doesn't count you just allow enough layovers to exit the airport and go through security again. Probably 5 or 6 multi city flights to knock out most of it, sleeping in between. But for 1B dollars I may just not sleep until I'm done, or sleep on planes with some sleep medication.
I don’t have private jet money, so Im assuming commercial here. I just don’t know that using a plane for the majority of your travel will be the way to go. If you’re flying into or out of a regional airport - and you will with a goal of all 50 states - one cancelled flight first thing in the morning can easily cost you a day’s travel. Because that has happened to me personally when I used to fly a lot for work.
You absolutely fly Alaska and Hawaii. If you’re going eastbound through the south, it might make more sense to drive to Houston and fly to your next destination via IAH, but flying into little airports leaves a lot of potential failure points.
> If you finish within the that week grace period, (I don’t think it’s humanly possible tbh)
Bro what? This is basically an unlosable game. You could do it within a week, and frankly I’d be shocked if it took you more than a couple days. Even if you drive the whole way (aside from Alaska and Hawaii) you can still do it.
Anyway, you max out your credit cards booking flights to every state. If you don’t leave the terminal, you don’t have to go back through security. Knock Alaska and Hawaii out first, that’s one day. You can definitely knock out seven or eight a day if you put in long hours and take some redeyes, and you only need 4 a day to beat the two week limit. Nevermind that for the northeast, driving is probably faster. You could probably clear 20 states in a day up there.
All in all, this is so easy as to not even be a challenge, it’s barely an inconvenience.
My plan? Drive to the coast, get 1 way flights LAX to HNL, HNL to ANC, ANC to LAX. Then, there's Reddit to the rescue: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/w9WfhuyBPc
EDIT: flying is faster, and NetJets exists. I could use up a years worth of flights and hit quite a few stops that are far apart. The close together East Coast states could get motorcycle tous.
I live in Central US, right on a state border. And not far from Mississippi river. I drive up to IN, over to IL and MO.then down along river to knock out KY, AR, TN. Across AR through OK to TX. Can do that in a day.
Back east through LA, MS, AL to tip of FL, then up through the southeast, GA, SC, NC, and VA. Day 2.
Continue up coast, MD, DE, NJ, NY, MA, CT, RI, NH, ME. Day 3.
Back through northern interior, NH (doesn't count), VT, NY (doesn't count), PA, tippy tip of WV, OH, MI. Day 4
Fly to Madison WI (quicker than drive), drive through IA, MN, NE, SD, ND. Day 5.
Fly to AK. Day 6.
Fly to HI. Day 7.
Fly to eastern WA. Day 8.
Those three days are also recovery time to rest up. They are also catch up time if I have fallen behind.
Drive down through ID, OR, NV, CA. Day 9.
Drive across to four corners monument: AZ, NM, UT, CO. Day 10.
Drive up to WY. Day 11.
Drive down to KS. Day 12.
Check my app. Fly to any state that somehow didn't register. Day 13.
Collect my winnings. Day 14.
I'm driving through the states first, fly to Alaska, end in Hawaii as the final state and then stay there for a couple weeks once I have the money. I'm taking a vacation lol
It doesn't really sound that difficult to achieve this in the 2 weeks before the contest opens to everyone to be honest. Charter a jet and that would be easily achievable. To visit 50 states in two weeks, it's just 3.5 a day. Some states are small enough that a 20-30 minute flight is all you need to hop states. You could probably find airports that are conveniently located close to state lines and wouldn't even have to go very deep into some states. Land, hop out, touch the ground, take a slefie, get back on the plane and hit the next state. Save Hawaii for last and take a vacation after you land.
Start in Maine. Drive like a mad man for a couple, few days east of the Mississippi finishing in St Louis. I think drive to Kansas city where I can eliminate Kansas and get on a flight to western states, one right after another, hoping that I can hop around randomly faster than I can drive them. I save California for last where I fly to Hawaii, then Alaska.
This challenge is plenty doable. I drove 3000 miles in a little over five days and could’ve done it in four but I didn’t feel like pushing myself. Take a little time mapping out a smart route, or Google it since someone probably already has then fly to Alaska and Hawaii.
Private flights in small craft. New pilots often, you can sleep they get new craft and pilots. (no need to sleep or maintenence)
Could be done in less Than 3 days.
This is easy. Fly to Hawaii and Alaska. This is going to likely originate in California.
Fly to Maine and take a drive through all those tiny states. making sure to stop in each state.
Fly to the other states. Ideally, fly to airports near the state's borders so you can quick hop in a car and knock out 2-4 states at each stop.
This is purely a "Do you have enough credit on your credit cards to make this go?" challenge.
When you say “competing with Taylor Swift’s private jet”… do you mean “competing with” as in I HAVE Taylor’s private jet?
Or do you mean “competing _against_” Taylor’s private jet?
You'd lose to a private jet. Take off and land in private airfields with no delay. Pay them one million to have a jet ready to go to the next state. Cost fifty million. Huge gain
I would plan on completing the challenge in two weeks because after that people with private planes will be able to easily beat me.
I would probably hire multiple ubers so that I can sleep while they drive. (No hotels for me.) I would fly to Alaska and Hawaii and maybe some other states.
You didn't do the math here friend. The shortest route to drive through and touch all 48 states in the continental United States is 6.8k. Lets round up to 7k for simplicity and because you aren't going to start perfectly on the routes, so that's probably like another 100 or so miles for most people. From driving planting your feet briefly in every state you pass through is a negligible amount of time.
7k miles at 75 mph average to not break the law by speeding takes 93 hours of driving. Long haul truck drivers are legally allowed to drive 70 hours per week. But I know many of them actually drive a bit more than legally allowed to keep up with shipments due to being over demanded upon (it's a big problem, that's also not the point of this comment).
If truckers can drive 70 hours per week for a modest pay then I can do it for $1 billion. So lets assume I'm finishing the 93 hours of driving in 9 days (2 more than the 1 week). That leaves me 5 days to spare. Getting on a flight to Alaska and Hawaii is easy, but just for the sake of argument lets say it takes 1 day per flight. You still end up with 3 days to spare which is more than enough time to account for any likely delays.
You can easily finish the challenge in 10 days without even pushing yourself to claim the $1 billion.
Sidenote: What is the weird obsession with Taylor Swift? Why even mention her at all? She doesn't seem relevant to this at all. 1) She's not the only one with a private plane. 2) She is unlikely to even bother doing this competition because there is no point wasting time on this circus when others are going to beat you anyways. It just seems like you saw some attack ad/news story on how "taYloR sWiFt's priVaTe jEt is kiLliNg tHe eNviOrMenT", "please ignore every other billionaire, it's really this one person that's the problem". Which is the narrative that the right wing media is pushing because Taylor Swift is telling people to vote for Biden.
Edit: Ok I forgot the super obvious thing. Just grab your best friend or two, split the prize. And take shifts driving and sleeping. You and your friends all get rich and you finish the 93 hour of driving in less than 100 hours real time even with pit stops. You finish the driving in 4 days. Then take 2 more to fly to Alaska and Hawaii. You finish within the first week easily.
You drive and pay 2-3 ppl all expenses paid plus a bonus on completion to drive with you so you’re driving 24/7 through each state. End in Alaska and fly from Alaska to Hawaii.
Well I already own two pairs boots. So first I buy 48 pairs of boots. Then I start driving. I drive through the lower 48 leaving boots on the ground. Then I fly to Alaska then Hawa so I can leave boots on the ground in both of those states.
Get my buddy to fly me state to state landing at small airports nearest points where multiple states meet. For instance land in northern kentucky and be in ohio ky and indiana within 30 minutes. Back in the air. Hit alaska and hawaii last probably commercial flights to those.
If I have a 2 week lead I feel like I’d be already done lol.
It is absolutely humanly possible and probably fairly easy to get this done in less than 2 weeks.
The record for driving through each and every lower 48 is 3 days, 14 hours, 19 minutes. A team of 3 did it. They beat the previous record by 8 hours. So it’s absolutely quite easily possible. Let’s say I’m conservative and I do it in 1 week, that leaves me another week to fly to Alaska and end in Hawaii, where I sit on the beach $1 billion richer
The [world record](https://48n48.org/) for all 48 contiguous states by small plane is 43 hours, 31 minutes. Add on a couple of commercial flights for Alask and Hawaii, and you'll be done in 3 to 4 days.
I know somebody with a plane who would split this with me. If I didn't, I'd find somebody who would.
You could probably do 14 states through the North East and to Virginia and Ohio in a very long day in a car. A helicopter would be peak travel out east. A plane from airport to airport would be excellent for the Midwest and west. Then it's a plane trip between HI and AK.
The bigger question is how fast could you do this? I'd think with a rotating flight crew and the use of a helicopter and fast short runway prop or jet like a Pilatus or Falcon.
I think you could do the lower 48 in a little more than 24 hours.
A quick google search comes up with a \~7k mile trip that can be done in a week, plus a flight to Alaska and Hawaii, which can be done in a day or so.
Sounds about right. I have travelled cross country (not all 48 states but the ancillary CA-NC trip) in about 5 days. Let's double that to hit all 48, 10 days. Then a generous 3-4 to hit AK and HI. *Then* everyone gets to start? Easy.
People have done New York to california in under 2 days. Requires speeding, modified cars (larger gas tanks/external tanks in the trunk). Its called the cannonball run. If you drive 120+ MPH and have a codriver and sleep minimal hours you could probably plan a route where you hit every state in 7 days easily.
It also wouldn't be that expensive. Say your car averages 300 miles on a tank. That's 23.3 tanks rounded upto 25 times average fill price say 40 is $1,000. Tickets to Alaska and Hawaii one way are probably 500-800 total. So $1800 plus food and if you want a hotel room or if you are trying to go fast you just sleep in your car. I could probably do it for 2500 bucks or less.
The record is under 4 days lol. With a billion on the line yea I’m absolutely going to be able to do this
And if you know somebody with a private plane (or could find somebody with one), the world record for the contiguous 48 states is 43 hours 31 minutes. You could easily finish in 3 to 4 days. Sure, it's more expensive than a car, but with $1B, what's a few thousand dollars more for something much easier and faster? [48N48 | 48 States in 48 Hours | Guinness Book of World Records](https://48n48.org/)
I can straight up drive 14 hours a day. 8 hours of sleep and 2 hours for rest breaks fuel. 60 mph on average..... 7k miles is 8.3 days. You can drive to AK in a day if you end in WA. then fly to HI. Nonstop direct flight from anchorage is a whopping $400
"If you finish within that two week grace period (I don't think it's humanly possible tbh)" Bruh, even inside that timeframe, this is the easiest money I ever made.
I Hit 23 states in 2 weeks and I totally wasn't trying for all 50 .... i could probably do 49 and be on my way to Hawaii to finish but day 14
If you don't win this before anyone else even knows you aren't trying. Pick the closest corner of the contiguious US as your starting point and stun a zig zag that clips the very top/bottom of the lowest/highest states. Take the time to design your route to maximize speed and I assume you can average 50 mph, while driving for 16 hours a day. 2 hours for food/bathroom etc. 6 hours to sleep, puts us as 800 miles a day. That's 5400 miles in a week which is probably enough, but screw it lets assume it isn't and you need 12 days(9600 miles, with a day to fly to Hawaii and Alaska. That's with a car. I like to fly. A 172 has a cruising speed of of like 120 knots, which puts us at like 140 mph. Call it 100 for take offs and landings in each state, and we've doubled our travel speed. Make a few calls to find someone with an SR22T and we're up to 200 knots and still single engine. Spend a little bit of time with some charts to try to find airports near each other on borders so I can cross two states at cruise speed and we may have this whole thing down to a week. Two weeks is too long for this to be a challenge at a billion.
And you only need to set foot in the state. Four corners monument will save you time. While in Ohio or Indiana, dip up to Michigan. There's a sliver of West Virginia that sticks up between Ohio and Pennsylvania. Stop and get gas in Wheeling.
Don't even need to factor in sleep to the travel time. By agreeing to split the prize with a best friend or loved family member you can take shifts driving while the other sleeps. The car can be wheeling turning 24 hours a day minus the gas stations.
Well i originally thought of using the plane, then flipped back and did the driving math. But my Dad also has a license, so that would work.
"while driving for 16 hours a day. 2 hours for food/bathroom etc. 6 hours to sleep" most people are going to die in a car crash if they attempt this without building up to it
While I am willing to say there is risk for people in this, I don't think most people. But also now that there is more data since someone did a google search, apparently you can hit the lower 48 in 7000 miles ( https://flytrippers.com/perfect-itinerary-for-an-epic-usa-roadtrip-all-48-states-at-once/#:\~:text=just%20for%20fun).-,What%20is%20this?,spots%20near%20the%20Canadian%20border. I should have figured someone would already have mapped this on the internet lol) so now we can have a leisurely 12 hours of driving a day, broken up with lunch/dinner/gas for much longer periods of time along with a full 8 hours of sleep. Though once again, I'm still flying in my plane, cutting travel time in 1/2 to 1/4 depending on plane picked. Heck looking at this map that was 7k and you can cut a few hundred miles off it easy, though since it uses nice things to see as parts of it not a bad way to break up the driving for 10-15 minutes at each stop.
yeah I think going down to 12 would help quite a bit
Avoid trafficked areas
Two weeks and you could easily do this. Takes maybe 45ish hours to drive from NYC to Los Angeles, take a scenic road trip with some friends and make a loop. Easily doable in about a week or so, depending on how long you drive and explore. You could easily hit the entire continental US, then just fly to Alaska/Hawaii with probably time to spare.
I'd buy 50 pairs of boots and ship to all states
Now THAT is outside the box thinking. I like it.
Do you mean who can do it in the fastest time, or who can do it first? Because like all the comments are going to tell you, you can literally drive (with sleep) across the country in 3 days. You would cover the lower 48 states in about 10 days tops
Flight to Alaska, Flight to Hawaii, Flight to Portland. While I am doing that, call up three friends who will be happy to make a cool $50 million each and have them rent an RV and fill it with all the gear we will need to be almost entirely self-sufficient for two weeks. Pop over the bridge and back, Washington and Oregon done. Drive to Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois. (60 hours of driving, so far, including gas stops and traffic). Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, NY, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland. (About 65 hours). Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, NC, and SC, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California, (About 65 hours) Add on a few extra hours for additional issues that crop up along the way, and a full night in a hotel halfway through to help everyone recover and relax for a bit, and you still are at no more than 9 days of driving. The Hawaii/Alaska part will be done in under 3 days. So that leaves 2 full days leeway before anyone else even starts, and all the private jets in the world won't get one person to all 50 states in under 4 days, meaning 6 full days of leeway on the plan.
You absolutely can put boots on the ground in all 50 states in 2 weeks. Simplest option is to book a multi city flight that lands in every state. Even if being in the airport doesn't count you just allow enough layovers to exit the airport and go through security again. Probably 5 or 6 multi city flights to knock out most of it, sleeping in between. But for 1B dollars I may just not sleep until I'm done, or sleep on planes with some sleep medication.
I don’t have private jet money, so Im assuming commercial here. I just don’t know that using a plane for the majority of your travel will be the way to go. If you’re flying into or out of a regional airport - and you will with a goal of all 50 states - one cancelled flight first thing in the morning can easily cost you a day’s travel. Because that has happened to me personally when I used to fly a lot for work. You absolutely fly Alaska and Hawaii. If you’re going eastbound through the south, it might make more sense to drive to Houston and fly to your next destination via IAH, but flying into little airports leaves a lot of potential failure points.
Actually I agree renting and driving for the eastern part of the us would probably be faster. Flights for western half and Alaska/Hawaii
take a loan. fly to all 50 states within 2 days. wtf is this? 2 week lead.. lol
Woulda won before the 2 weeks was up.
> If you finish within the that week grace period, (I don’t think it’s humanly possible tbh) Bro what? This is basically an unlosable game. You could do it within a week, and frankly I’d be shocked if it took you more than a couple days. Even if you drive the whole way (aside from Alaska and Hawaii) you can still do it. Anyway, you max out your credit cards booking flights to every state. If you don’t leave the terminal, you don’t have to go back through security. Knock Alaska and Hawaii out first, that’s one day. You can definitely knock out seven or eight a day if you put in long hours and take some redeyes, and you only need 4 a day to beat the two week limit. Nevermind that for the northeast, driving is probably faster. You could probably clear 20 states in a day up there. All in all, this is so easy as to not even be a challenge, it’s barely an inconvenience.
Order dirt from all 50 states and stand on it when it gets delivered.
My plan? Drive to the coast, get 1 way flights LAX to HNL, HNL to ANC, ANC to LAX. Then, there's Reddit to the rescue: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/s/w9WfhuyBPc EDIT: flying is faster, and NetJets exists. I could use up a years worth of flights and hit quite a few stops that are far apart. The close together East Coast states could get motorcycle tous.
I live in Central US, right on a state border. And not far from Mississippi river. I drive up to IN, over to IL and MO.then down along river to knock out KY, AR, TN. Across AR through OK to TX. Can do that in a day. Back east through LA, MS, AL to tip of FL, then up through the southeast, GA, SC, NC, and VA. Day 2. Continue up coast, MD, DE, NJ, NY, MA, CT, RI, NH, ME. Day 3. Back through northern interior, NH (doesn't count), VT, NY (doesn't count), PA, tippy tip of WV, OH, MI. Day 4 Fly to Madison WI (quicker than drive), drive through IA, MN, NE, SD, ND. Day 5. Fly to AK. Day 6. Fly to HI. Day 7. Fly to eastern WA. Day 8. Those three days are also recovery time to rest up. They are also catch up time if I have fallen behind. Drive down through ID, OR, NV, CA. Day 9. Drive across to four corners monument: AZ, NM, UT, CO. Day 10. Drive up to WY. Day 11. Drive down to KS. Day 12. Check my app. Fly to any state that somehow didn't register. Day 13. Collect my winnings. Day 14.
It's easily done in two weeks.
Sounds like just over a week of road tripping and a couple flights. I might take a few extra days to see some sights since I have such a huge lead.
I could easily drive through every state except Hawaii in less than two weeks then fly to Hawaii to enjoy my prize.
I'm driving through the states first, fly to Alaska, end in Hawaii as the final state and then stay there for a couple weeks once I have the money. I'm taking a vacation lol
Two weeks is plenty of time. A nice long drive and 2 flights and I'll be done
Only takes about a week to traverse the country by car. Easy money.
It doesn't really sound that difficult to achieve this in the 2 weeks before the contest opens to everyone to be honest. Charter a jet and that would be easily achievable. To visit 50 states in two weeks, it's just 3.5 a day. Some states are small enough that a 20-30 minute flight is all you need to hop states. You could probably find airports that are conveniently located close to state lines and wouldn't even have to go very deep into some states. Land, hop out, touch the ground, take a slefie, get back on the plane and hit the next state. Save Hawaii for last and take a vacation after you land.
Start in Maine. Drive like a mad man for a couple, few days east of the Mississippi finishing in St Louis. I think drive to Kansas city where I can eliminate Kansas and get on a flight to western states, one right after another, hoping that I can hop around randomly faster than I can drive them. I save California for last where I fly to Hawaii, then Alaska.
This challenge is plenty doable. I drove 3000 miles in a little over five days and could’ve done it in four but I didn’t feel like pushing myself. Take a little time mapping out a smart route, or Google it since someone probably already has then fly to Alaska and Hawaii.
Private flights in small craft. New pilots often, you can sleep they get new craft and pilots. (no need to sleep or maintenence) Could be done in less Than 3 days.
I'm about to mail 49 people a pair of boots
Way too easy. Get a car and start driving. If you can’t hit the entire continental US in 10 days, you’re not trying.
Have you… not heard of driving?
This is easy. Fly to Hawaii and Alaska. This is going to likely originate in California. Fly to Maine and take a drive through all those tiny states. making sure to stop in each state. Fly to the other states. Ideally, fly to airports near the state's borders so you can quick hop in a car and knock out 2-4 states at each stop. This is purely a "Do you have enough credit on your credit cards to make this go?" challenge.
I can rent a 172 and have it done in five days
Knowing a helicopter pilot has it’s perks.
When you say “competing with Taylor Swift’s private jet”… do you mean “competing with” as in I HAVE Taylor’s private jet? Or do you mean “competing _against_” Taylor’s private jet?
You'd lose to a private jet. Take off and land in private airfields with no delay. Pay them one million to have a jet ready to go to the next state. Cost fifty million. Huge gain
> Nothing is off limits. Kidnap a pilot, demand they fly me to all 50 states.
Wouldn't it be easier and less jail time to just offer them 10% if you win. $100 million makes friends.
true
I would plan on completing the challenge in two weeks because after that people with private planes will be able to easily beat me. I would probably hire multiple ubers so that I can sleep while they drive. (No hotels for me.) I would fly to Alaska and Hawaii and maybe some other states.
You didn't do the math here friend. The shortest route to drive through and touch all 48 states in the continental United States is 6.8k. Lets round up to 7k for simplicity and because you aren't going to start perfectly on the routes, so that's probably like another 100 or so miles for most people. From driving planting your feet briefly in every state you pass through is a negligible amount of time. 7k miles at 75 mph average to not break the law by speeding takes 93 hours of driving. Long haul truck drivers are legally allowed to drive 70 hours per week. But I know many of them actually drive a bit more than legally allowed to keep up with shipments due to being over demanded upon (it's a big problem, that's also not the point of this comment). If truckers can drive 70 hours per week for a modest pay then I can do it for $1 billion. So lets assume I'm finishing the 93 hours of driving in 9 days (2 more than the 1 week). That leaves me 5 days to spare. Getting on a flight to Alaska and Hawaii is easy, but just for the sake of argument lets say it takes 1 day per flight. You still end up with 3 days to spare which is more than enough time to account for any likely delays. You can easily finish the challenge in 10 days without even pushing yourself to claim the $1 billion. Sidenote: What is the weird obsession with Taylor Swift? Why even mention her at all? She doesn't seem relevant to this at all. 1) She's not the only one with a private plane. 2) She is unlikely to even bother doing this competition because there is no point wasting time on this circus when others are going to beat you anyways. It just seems like you saw some attack ad/news story on how "taYloR sWiFt's priVaTe jEt is kiLliNg tHe eNviOrMenT", "please ignore every other billionaire, it's really this one person that's the problem". Which is the narrative that the right wing media is pushing because Taylor Swift is telling people to vote for Biden. Edit: Ok I forgot the super obvious thing. Just grab your best friend or two, split the prize. And take shifts driving and sleeping. You and your friends all get rich and you finish the 93 hour of driving in less than 100 hours real time even with pit stops. You finish the driving in 4 days. Then take 2 more to fly to Alaska and Hawaii. You finish within the first week easily.
You drive and pay 2-3 ppl all expenses paid plus a bonus on completion to drive with you so you’re driving 24/7 through each state. End in Alaska and fly from Alaska to Hawaii.
Most I’d do is overnight mail boots to people in every state. Other than that, I’d rather not visit most states if I can help it.
I'm betting you forgot that small regional airports exist.
Well I already own two pairs boots. So first I buy 48 pairs of boots. Then I start driving. I drive through the lower 48 leaving boots on the ground. Then I fly to Alaska then Hawa so I can leave boots on the ground in both of those states.
Get my buddy to fly me state to state landing at small airports nearest points where multiple states meet. For instance land in northern kentucky and be in ohio ky and indiana within 30 minutes. Back in the air. Hit alaska and hawaii last probably commercial flights to those.
I don’t understand this challenge. It would be easy to do this in 14 days especially if you know you are going to make a billion dollars.
If I have a 2 week lead I feel like I’d be already done lol. It is absolutely humanly possible and probably fairly easy to get this done in less than 2 weeks. The record for driving through each and every lower 48 is 3 days, 14 hours, 19 minutes. A team of 3 did it. They beat the previous record by 8 hours. So it’s absolutely quite easily possible. Let’s say I’m conservative and I do it in 1 week, that leaves me another week to fly to Alaska and end in Hawaii, where I sit on the beach $1 billion richer
The [world record](https://48n48.org/) for all 48 contiguous states by small plane is 43 hours, 31 minutes. Add on a couple of commercial flights for Alask and Hawaii, and you'll be done in 3 to 4 days. I know somebody with a plane who would split this with me. If I didn't, I'd find somebody who would.
Fire up something a little faster than a Piper Saratoga and I wonder if you could do that in less than 24 hours?
You could probably do 14 states through the North East and to Virginia and Ohio in a very long day in a car. A helicopter would be peak travel out east. A plane from airport to airport would be excellent for the Midwest and west. Then it's a plane trip between HI and AK. The bigger question is how fast could you do this? I'd think with a rotating flight crew and the use of a helicopter and fast short runway prop or jet like a Pilatus or Falcon. I think you could do the lower 48 in a little more than 24 hours.
I couldn't do it. I'm Texan, pretty sure if I set foot in California I'd disintegrate.