Air Force major has 17 Guinness World Records, with 3 more pending confirmation

An Air Force officer in Massachusetts has set 17 Guinness World Records and is waiting on three other marks to be reviewed.

Maj. Jonathan Buckingham, based out of Hanscom Air Force Base, 20 miles northwest of Boston, has the records based on travel and on interacting with objects.

Hanscom AFB did not specify which three records he’s waiting on for review by Guinness World Records.

In terms of travel, Maj. Buckingham holds the records for fastest time to all seven continents, fastest circumnavigation visiting six continents via scheduled flights, fastest time to travel to all New York City ferry stations and most museum visits within 24 hours, which he set by going to 49 museums in London on Aug. 16, according to Guinness World Records.

His most recent records include the most basketball bounces on a board within a minute, which he set with one and two balls, base officials said. He got 120 bounces for each record, both of which he set on Jan. 27.

Other object-related records held by Maj. Buckingham include:

• Fastest time to burst 200 balloons with a nail.

• Most balloons burst with boxing gloves in one minute.

• Most balloons burst with feet in one minute.

• Most fire knife spins on a balance board in one minute.

• Most catches of a medicine ball wearing boxing gloves in one minute.

• Most alternating tennis ball catches in the plank position in one minute.

• Fastest time to break open five piñatas.

• 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.

“Some of them are pure athleticism, and others are completely skills based. A cool one we did was fastest time to burst 200 balloons with a nail. … We had to line up 100 rows of balloons, one on top of the other, and then run all the way down and pop them with a nail. The preparation time of blowing up 200 balloons took us about six hours,” Maj. Buckingham said in the base’s release.

He also holds the world record for fastest speed achieved while riding skis on asphalt while being towed by a vehicle. On Aug. 31, he reached 69 mph, Guinness World Records said.

Maj. Buckingham previously served as a pilot on 120 combat missions across the Middle East during deployments to Qatar and Afghanistan and now works as a program manager for the Air Force’s Kessel Run software development division. The division is named after the Han Solo boast from 1977’s “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope.”