Colonel Terry Virts, used to the high speeds aboard the International Space Station, savoured the more sedate 534mph average set by the Gulfstream G650ER

An international team of aviators led by a British pilot and an astronaut have set a new record for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by an aircraft via the north and south poles.

Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, and Colonel Terry Virts, a former commander of the International Space Station, touched down at Kennedy Space Center after a flight of 46 hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds, beating the previous record of 54 hours, seven minutes and 12 seconds.

“I’m ecstatic. We pushed the boundaries of aeronautics and the aircraft handled it flawlessly,” Mr Harding, of St John’s Wood, London, said.

Hamish Harding, left, and Terry Virts, centre, with Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut and former International Space Station crewmate of Colonel Virts who joined them on the first two legs of the flight

Colonel Virts, 50, who spent 213 days in space and orbited Earth more than 3,400 times as a Nasa astronaut, named