Small airplane... long distance?

Recently, a recently retired 30 year American Airlines veteran pilot, Bill Harrelson, set out on multiple flying distance records. The catch, however, is the airplane he used to set these records. Bill flew a Lancair IV-P; a two seat airplane that is "kit-built", meaning it's amateur build (mostly by the pilot) in a setting like a home garage or homemade shop. The Lancair is extremely small, cramped, and uncomfortably compared to other General Aviation airplanes. However, Harrelson picked the Lancair for a special reason: he could customize it however he wanted to. Bill took advantage of this by adding a 300 gallon fuel tank in place of the co-pilot seat and rear cargo space. With this modification, Harrelson was able to complete some incredible single engine propeller airplane distance and endurance flights. The first one Bill flew, from Indiana to Honolulu, took him 22 hours and 30 minutes. Keep in mind that Harrelson had to be awake and alert for this entire flight. Not only was he awake for over 22 hours, but he was in an extremely cramped, noisy, and dark cockpit with a huge metal fuel tank sitting beside him to keep him company.Bill didn't stop here, however. He has also flown flights from the southern point of South America to Key West, a 23 hour venture, and Bill is now planning a flight over the North Pole. When asked how he keeps himself company on extremely long solo flights Bill just simply said, "I look out the window," a simple solution to what seems like an almost impossible task.

The entire aviation community is behind Bill on all of his flights and following him closely!