“We’ll see how we’re feeling that day. It’s pretty fast. We’ve got to make sure that we’re safe, and we break the record,” Buckingham said when asked how much he wants to break the record by.
Buckingham, who works as a program manager for the Kessel Run division, has set 17 Guinness World Records and has five records under consideration. Some of the records, he said, are more intentional, and others just sound interesting and “let’s try that.”
A few of Buckingham’s records include the fastest time to burst 200 balloons with a nail, the most museums visited in 24 hours and the most fire knife spins on a balance board in one minute.
The Honolulu native attended the Air Force Academy on a tennis scholarship from 2007 to 2011. He began his Air Force career as a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot and held that role from 2012 to 2017 before transitioning to acquisitions. He currently is stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
Buckingham said he remembers seeing the book, Guinness World Records, growing up, but he did not think it was something he would pursue.
Buckingham’s first record pursuit, the fastest time to travel seven continents, began in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. His sister had seen some people do it, and he spent the next couple of years planning the route.
“It went with my flight planning, mission planning skills and traveling the world. That one connected more closely to what I like,” Buckingham said.
He attempted the record in 2022 but came up short, missing his connecting flight in Egypt. Buckingham, who was a mission planner with the 618th Air Operations Center, took a couple of years after the initial attempt to game plan more. In February 2025, he broke the record by completing it in 64 hours. The previous record was 73 hours.
“Missing it the first time made me want it even more, you know, when I tried it again,” Buckingham said. “So it’s one that definitely sticks out of my head where I was like, ‘Wow, yeah, I did it.’ ”
In addition to being an airman, Buckingham will earn his MBA from Yale University in May, and he runs the nonprofit World Record Breakers Club.
While working on his degree, one of the assignments involved pitching a startup.
“Someone suggested I kind of mix my community service with traveling, with these record-breaking things and then try to form a nonprofit around it,” Buckingham said.
Buckingham emphasized that the Air Force comes first but manages his time to pursue other interests.
“I did the math on it, and if you’re working an eight- to 10-hour shift each day and sleeping for six or seven hours and another hour for exercise, you have at least five or six hours each day during the week to kind of do whatever you want,” he said. “So I choose to use my time to work on these world records and then to kind of link it to this children’s nonprofit.”
World Record Breakers Club was started last year, and the nonprofit has donated about $2,000 worth of equipment and books to organizations from New Haven, Conn., to South Africa, according to an Air Force news release.
“All the records are cool, but in the end, it’s not about me. It’s just, you know, how can we give back to the community and really trying to push the nonprofit ... to just see how we can help,” Buckingham said. “That’s all that really matters. So if there’s anyone out there that wants to try these records, reach out to me and we can find something to do together.”
Buckingham’s current records include:
- Fastest time to travel to seven continents.
- Fastest circumnavigation by scheduled flights, visiting six continents.
- Fastest towed asphalt skiing.
- Most fire knife spins on a balance board in one minute.
- Fastest time to travel to all New York City ferry stations.
- Most catches of a medicine ball wearing boxing gloves in one minute.
- Most balloons burst with boxing gloves in one minute.
- Most balloons burst with feet in one minute.
- Fastest time to burst 200 balloons with a nail.
- Most alternating tennis ball catches in the plank position in one minute.
- Fastest time to put on 10 socks.
- Fastest time to set up and topple 10 books.
- Fastest time to set up and topple Guinness World Record books.
- Fastest time to break open five pinatas.
- Most museums visited in 24 hours.
- Most basketball bounces on a balance board in one minute.
- Most basketball bounces on a balance board in one minute with two balls.
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