Google's Project Loon balloon circumnavigates globe in record 22 days

Google's Project Loon Wi-Fi broadcasting balloon Ibis-167 reportedly circled the Earth in a record 22 days.

Earlier, Google had estimated a total of 33 days for Ibis-167 to successfully circumnavigate the globe.

According to Cnet, before Ibis-167, Google had floated Project Loon balloons up into the atmosphere-in all the project has traveled 311,000 miles and experienced wind speeds ranging from 2 knots to 75 knots-but it hadn't yet seen such a speedy traverse around the world.

Google wrote on Project Loon's Google+ account that it enjoyed a few loop-de-loops over the Pacific Ocean before heading east on the winds toward Chile and Argentina, and then made its way back around near Australia and New Zealand.

The company said that along the way, it caught a ride on the Roaring Forties-strong west-to-east winds in the southern hemisphere that act like an autobahn in the sky, where its balloons can quickly zoom over oceans to get to where people actually need them.