Richard Branson has been involved in a number of world record-breaking attempts since 1985, when in the spirit of the Blue Riband he attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest recorded time. His first attempt in the "Virgin Atlantic Challenger" led to the boat capsizing in British waters and a rescue by RAF helicopter, which received wide media coverage. Some newspapers called for Richard Branson to reimburse the British government for the cost of his rescue. In 1986, he made a successful crossing in his "Virgin Atlantic Challenger II" with sailing expert Daniel McCarthy, beating previous records by two hours. This was followed a year later by the epic hot air balloon crossing of the same ocean in "Virgin Atlantic Flyer". This was not only the first hot-air balloon to cross the Atlantic, but was the largest ever flown at 2.3 million cubic feet (65,000 m³) capacity, reaching speeds in excess of 130 miles per hour (209 km/h).
In January 1991, Branson crossed the Pacific Ocean in a balloon from Japan to Arctic Canada, the farthest distance of 6,700 miles (10,800 km). Again, he broke all existing records, with speeds of up to 245 miles per hour in a balloon of 2.6 million cubic feet (74,000 m³).

Between 1995 and 1998 Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett, made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon. In late 1998 they made a record-breaking flight from Morocco to Hawaii but were unable to complete a global flight before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in Breitling Orbiter achieved the first circumnavigation in March 1999.

In March 2004, Branson set another world record by travelling from Dover to Calais in a Gibbs Aquada, breaking all previous records for fastest time in crossing the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle. The crossing was performed in 1 hour, 40 minutes, and 6 seconds. The previous record was set by two Frenchmen at 6 hours.[