Woman fying from England to Australia in 1942 biplane...and it will take 14 weeks

The next time you get ready to unleash your frustrations over a delayed flight, try to remember that a century ago flying from New York to London in any amount of time, let alone 6.5 hours, seemed like something out of a science fiction novel. British pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor is reminding us all just how fortunate we are to experience the miracle of modern flight, no matter how many bones we have to pick with the airlines. Curtis-Taylor is making the journey from England to Australia from the open cockpit of a 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane — a trip that will take her...wait for it...wait for it...12 to 14 weeks.

Curtis-Taylor's trip is in honor of pilot Amy Johnson, who made the flight in 20 days in 1930, becoming the first women to do so. Curtis-Taylor’s plane, The Spirit of Artemis, took off October 1st and is expected to cover 13,000 miles (2,500 more than original flight due to a detour around Iraq and Syria) —crossing Europe, the Mediterranean, the Arabian desert, Gulf of Oman, and southern Asia.

All told, she'll visit 23 countries and make 50 fuel stops. Fifty fuel stops: try to let that sink in and recall it next time you want to start tweeting about how the massage during your layover was too expensive.

Follow the trip yourself on Curtis-Taylor’s web, Twitter, and Facebook pages. She is documenting the trip (along with a film crew) for an eventual documentary. The trip doesn’t end in Australia, either. After arriving in January, the plane will be shipped to the United States, and the around-the-world trip continued from the West Coast.