Transcontinental flight

Type of flight

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A transcontinental flight is a non-stop passenger flight from one side of a continent to the other.[1] The term usually refers to flights across the United States, between the East and West Coasts.[dubious – discuss]

## History

[edit]

The first transcontinental multi-stop flight across the United States was made in 1911 by Calbraith Perry Rodgers in an attempt to win the Hearst prize offered by publisher William Randolph Hearst. Hearst offered a $US50,000 prize to the first aviator to fly coast to coast, in either direction, in less than 30 days from start to finish. Previous attempts by James J. Ward and Henry Atwood had been unsuccessful.[2]

Rodgers persuaded J. Ogden Armour, of Armour and Company, to sponsor the flight, and in return he named the plane after Armour's grape soft drink "Vin Fiz". Rodgers left from Sheepshead Bay, New York, on September 17, 1911, at 4:30 pm, carrying the first transcontinental mail pouch. He crossed the Rocky Mountains on November 5, 1911, and landed at Tournament Park in Pasadena, California, at 4:04 pm, in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. He had missed the prize deadline by 19 days. He was accompanied on the ground by a support crew that repaired and rebuilt the plane after each crash landing. The trip required 70 stops.

On December 10, 1911, Rodgers flew to Long Beach, California, and symbolically taxied his plane into the Pacific Ocean.

## Timeline of early transcontinental flights

[edit]

* 1911 – James J. Ward, failed attempt.[3]
* 1911 – Henry Atwood, failed attempt.
* 1911 – Calbraith Perry Rodgers – Start: September 17, 1911, at 4:30 pm; finish: November 5, 1911.[4][5]
* 1912 – Robert George Fowler \- Start: September 11, 1911; finish: February 8, 1912.[citation needed]
* 1923 – First non-stop flight from Long Island, New York to Rockwell Field, San Diego by Lt. John Macready and Lt. Oakley Kelly in a Fokker T-2[6]
* 1929 – The Buhl Airsedan "Spokane Sun-God" was the first aircraft to make a non-stop US transcontinental round-trip flight on August 15, 1929 (Nick Mamer and Art Walker flew it from Spokane, Washington, to New York City and back between August 15 and 21, 1929, taking 120 hours 1 minute 40 seconds).[7]
* 1930 – Frank Hawks flew from San Diego to New York in a towed glider leaving San Diego March 30, 1930, and arriving in New York eight days later.[8]
* 1932 – First scheduled cross-country through passenger flights (no change of plane).[9]
* 1933 – Transcontinental passenger flights in as little as 20 hours on the Boeing 247.[10]
* 1934 – First three-stop airline flights (TWA DC-2s).
* 1946 – First one-stop airline flights (United DC-4s and TWA Constellations).[11]
* 1953 – First sustained nonstop airline flights (TWA may have flown some LA-NY nonstops in 1947).
* 1957 – First transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed. John Glenn flew from Naval Air Station Los Alamitos, California to Floyd Bennett Field, New York in 3 hours and 23 minutes.[12]

## Transcontinental air speed records

[edit]

In-flight and on-ground time are counted after the earliest flights

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

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Year  | Date  | Time  | Direction  | Pilot  | Aircraft  | Notes and reference

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1911 | September 17 | 3 days, 10 hours, 14 minutes | East to West | Calbraith Perry Rodgers | Vin Fiz Flyer | The first transcontinental flight. It took fifty days (3 days, 10 hours, 14 minutes actual flying time). Rodgers made it in some seventy hops, flying a Wright biplane which was damaged and repaired so many times en route that nothing remained of the original machine at the finish but the drip pan and the vertical rudder.
1919 | October 11 | 3 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes [1][permanent dead link] | East to West | Belvin W. Maynard | DH-4 | On the first leg of the "Transcontinental Air Race of 1919" which saw 33 planes cross the U.S. with 8 completing the round-trip (out of 67 which began the trip). Nine deaths occurred during what was officially the U.S. Army's "Transcontinental Reliability and Endurance Test"
1922 | September 4 | 21 hours, 19 minutes | East to West | Jimmy Doolittle | DH-4 | Pablo Beach, Florida, to San Diego, California, with only one refueling stop [2]
1923 | May 2–3 | 26 hours, 50 minutes, 38.4 seconds | East to West | Lt John A. Macready and Lt Oakley G. Kelly | Fokker T-2 | First nonstop transcontinental flight: Roosevelt Field, Long Island to Rockwell Field, North Island, San Diego. Longest straight-line distance covered nonstop until then[13]
1924 | June 23 | 20 hours, 48 minutes | East to West | Russell Maughan | Curtiss P-1 Hawk | First transcontinental flight "during hours of daylight". New York City to San Francisco, average speed 128 miles per hour
1929 | February 4 | 18 hours 22 minutes | West to East | Frank Hawks | Lockheed Air Express | Los Angeles Van Nuys to New York Roosevelt Field nonstop, 2481 miles, with mechanic/fueller Oscar Grubb
1929 | June 27 | 19 hours, 10 minutes | East to West | Frank Hawks | Lockheed Air Express[14][unreliable source?] | New York City to Los Angeles[15]
1929 | June 28 | 17 hours, 36 minutes | West to East | Frank Hawks | Lockheed Air Express | Los Angeles to New York City
1929 | August 15 | 120 hr 1 min 40 sec[16] | West to East and East to West | Nick Mamer and Art Walker | Buhl Airsedan "Spokane Sun-God" | First non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight from Spokane, Washington to New York City and back
1930 | April 20 | 14 hr 45 min | West to East | Charles A. Lindbergh | Lockheed Sirius | Los Angeles (Glendale) to New York Roosevelt Field, one stop[17]
1930 | May 27 | 18 hr 43 min | East to West | Roscoe Turner | Lockheed Air Express | New York City to Los Angeles with 3 passengers.[18]
1930 | Aug 13 | 12 hr 25 min | West to East | Frank Hawks | Travel Air "Mystery S" | Los Angeles to New York City; three stops[19][20]
1931 | September 4 | 11 hr 16 min 10 sec | West to East | Jimmy Doolittle | 1931 Laird Super Solution | Burbank CA to Newark NJ, three stops [3]
1932 | August 29 | 10 hr 19 min | West to East | Jimmy Haizlip | Wedell-Williams Model 44 | Burbank to New York Floyd Bennett; two stops. Completed after winning the 2nd annual Bendix Trophy race.[21]
1932 | November 14 | 12 hr 33 min | East to West | Roscoe Turner | Wedell-Williams Model 44 | New York Floyd Bennett to Burbank, California; three stops[22]
1933 | July 1 | 11 hr 30 min | East to West | Roscoe Turner | Wedell-Williams Model 44 | New York Floyd Bennett to Burbank, California; four stops[23]
1933 | September 24–25 | 10 hr 5 min 30 sec | West to East | Roscoe Turner | Wedell-Williams Model 44 | Burbank, California to New York Floyd Bennett; two stops[24]
1936 | January 13 | 9 hr 27 min 10sec | West to East | Howard Hughes | Northrop Gamma[25] | Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey.[26]
1937 | January 19 | 7 hr 28 min 25 sec | West to East | Howard Hughes | Hughes H-1 Racer | nonstop Burbank, California to overhead Newark Airport, NJ; 2445 miles
1939 | February 11 | 7 hr ? min | West to East | Benjamin S. Kelsey | XP-38[27] | 7 hr 43 min March Field, California to overhead Mitchel Field, New York including 41 min on ground at Amarillo and Dayton
1945 | January 9 | 6 hr 4 min | West to East | Curtin L. Reinhardt | C-97 Stratofreighter | Seattle to Washington, D.C., average speed 383 mph[28]
1945 | May 1 | 5 hr 40 min | West to East | Najeeb Halaby | Lockheed YP-80 Shooting Star | Muroc AFB to Patuxent River NAS[29]
1945 | December | 5 hr 17 min | West to East | Glen Edwards and Lt. Col. Henry E. Warden | XB-42 Mixmaster | Captain Glen Edwards and Lt. Col. Henry E. Warden set a new transcontinental record flying the XB-42 from Long Beach, California to Bolling Field in Washington DC (2301 miles) in 5 hours 17 minutes, average 433.6 mph (697.8 km/h).
1945 | December | 5 hr 27 min 8 sec | West to East | Col C. S. Irvine | Boeing B-29 | Burbank, California to overhead Floyd Bennett Field, New York; average 450 miles/hour for 2459 miles
1946 | January 26 | 4 hr 13 min 26 sec | West to East | Col W. H. Councill | Lockheed P-80 | Long Beach, California to overhead La Guardia Airport, New York; 2460 miles nonstop, unrefuelled
1947 | September 3 | 7 hr 00 min 04 sec | East to West | Paul Mantz | North American P-51 | La Guardia Airport, NY to Burbank, California, 2459 miles
1949 | February 8 | 3 hr 46 min | West to East |  | B-47 Stratojet | Larson AFB, Moses Lake, Washington to Andrews AFB near Washington DC, 607.8 mph average [4]
1954 | January 2 | 4 hr 8 min 5 sec | West to East | Col Willard Millikan | North American F-86F | Los Angeles LAX to overhead New York Floyd Bennett, 2468 miles; time includes fuel stop at Offutt AFB
1954 | March 30 | 4 hr 24 min 17 sec | West to East | Joe DeBona | North American P-51C | Los Angeles LAX nonstop to New York Idlewild, 2474 miles – still the prop record (560 mph)
1954 | April 1 | 3 hr 45 min 30 sec | West to East | LtCdr Francis Brady | Grumman F9F-7 Cougar | San Diego North Island to New York Floyd Bennett, 2442 miles, nonstop, one refuelling
1955 | March 9 | 3 hr 46 min 33.6 sec | West to East | Lt Col Robert Scott | Republic F-84F | Los Angeles LAX to overhead New York Floyd Bennett, 2468 miles; two aerial refuellings
1955 | May 21 | 5 hr 28 min | East to West | Lieut John Conroy | North American F-86 | New York Mitchel Field to Los Angeles Van Nuys, 2481 miles, three stops
1957 | March 21 | 5 hr 15 min | East to West | Cdr Dale Cox | Douglas A3D | nonstop unrefuelled New York Floyd Bennett to Los Angeles LAX
1957 | March 23 | 3 hr 39 min 24 sec | West to East |  | Douglas A3D | Burbank CA to overhead Miami MCAS, FL
1957 | May 19 | 3 hr 38 min | West to East |  | N American F-100F | Palmdale CA to McGuire AFB, NJ
1957 | July 16 | 3 hr 23 min 8.4 sec | West to East | Major John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC | Vought F8U-1P Crusader | "Project Bullet" non-stop from NAS Los Alamitos, California 2455 miles to Floyd Bennett Field, New York averaging Mach 1.1, despite three refuelings from AJ piston-engine tankers during which speed dropped below 300 mph. Glenn's on-board reconnaissance camera recorded the first continuous panoramic photograph of the United States.
1957 | November 27 | 3 hr 5 min 39.2 sec | West to East | Lieutenant Gustav Klatt[30] | F-101 Voodoo | "Operation Sun Run", RF-101C refuelled four times by KC-135s; Ontario, California to overhead Floyd Bennett Field, New York, 781.7 mph [5][6]
1961 | May 24 | 2 hr 47 min 18 sec | West to East | Lieutenant Richard F. Gordon, Jr., U.S. Navy | McDonnell F4H | Ontario, California to overhead Floyd Bennett Field, New York; three aerial refuellings from A3Ds
1962 | March 5 | 2 hr 1 min 39 sec | West to East | Robert G. Sowers | Convair B-58 | overhead Los Angeles to overhead New York; one aerial refuelling
1990 | March 6 | 1 hr 7 min 53.69 sec | West to East | Lt Col Ed Yeilding and Lt Col Joseph T. Vida | SR-71A Blackbird

61-7972

| On delivery flight to the Smithsonian Institution, where the aircraft is now on display at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy center, this SR-71 set the current transcontinental record. Yeilding and Vida crossed the west coast near Ventura, CA and, 2,404.5 miles later, crossed the east coast near Salisbury, MD averaging 2,124.51 mph [7]
2003 | February 5 | 2 hr 56 min 20 sec | West to East | Steve Fossett, Douglas Travis | Cessna Citation X | San Diego to Charleston SC, 2150 great-circle miles; fastest transcon flight by a subsonic aircraft
2003 | February 6 | 3 hr 51 min 52 sec | West to East | Steve Fossett, Joseph Ritchie | Piaggio Avanti | San Diego to Charleston SC; fastest transcon flight by a turboprop
2003 | November 5 | 3 hr 55 min 12 sec | East to West | Mike Bannister and Les Broadie | Concorde G-BOAG | Flying to museum at retirement of the aircraft, New York to Seattle[31][32]

## Junior transcontinental air speed record

[edit]

For the junior record only in-flight time is counted at a certain speed

Year  | Date  | Time  | Pilot  | Aircraft  | Notes and reference

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1928 |  |  | Richard James (aviator) | Travel Air | Previous "record" of 48 hours, set last year by 18-year-old Richard James, was spread over a month elapsed time.[8]
1930 | October 4, 1930 | East to West in 23 hours, 47 minutes | Robert Nietzel Buck | Pitcairn PA-6 Mailwing | On October 4, 1930, Robert beat the junior transcontinental air speed record of Eddie August Schneider in his PA-6 Pitcairn Mailwing he named "Yankee Clipper". His time was 23 hours, 47 minutes of elapsed flying time. Robert said on February 6, 2005: "I was the youngest to fly coast to coast and that record still stands. I had my license at 16 and after that, they raised the minimum age to 17. With that change, no one could break my record."
1930 | August 18, 1930 | East to West in 29 hours, 55 minutes | Eddie August Schneider | Cessna | Leaving from Westfield, New Jersey on August 14, 1930, to Los Angeles, California in 4 days with a combined flying time of 29 hours and 55 minutes. He lowered the East to West record by 4 hours and 22 minutes. He then made the return trip from Los Angeles to Roosevelt Field, New York in 27 hours, 19 minutes, lowering the West to East record by 1 hour and 36 minutes. His total elapsed time for the round trip was 57 hours, 14 minutes.
1930 |  | East to West in 32 hours ? minutes | Frank Goldsborough |  | Combined East to West and West to East in 62 hours and 58 minutes.[33]

## Women's transcontinental air speed record

[edit]

For the women's record, only in-flight time is counted

Year  | Date  | Time  | Pilot  | Aircraft  | Notes and reference

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1930  |  | 13 hours, 21 minutes | Ruth Nichols |  |
1933  |  | 13 hours, 7 minutes, 30 seconds | Amelia Earhart |  |
1934  |  | 10 hours, 5 minutes | Laura Ingalls |  |

## See also

[edit]

* World record
* Dawn-to-dusk transcontinental flight across the United States
* Flight altitude record
* Transcontinental railroad
* Flyover country

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Transcontinental Flights | Alternative Airlines". www.alternativeairlines.com. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
2. ^ "James J. Ward". earlyaviators.com. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
3. ^ "Flier, Seeking to Reach San Francisco, Lands at Calicoon Late in the Afternoon". New York Times. September 15, 1911. Retrieved November 25, 2010. "James J. Ward, who left New York for San Francisco Wednesday, flying for the W.R. Hearst $50,000 prize for a transcontinental flight, reached Callicoon, N.Y., a few miles from here, at 4:35 o'clock this afternoon. He covered 59 1–10 miles in 57 minutes, having left Middletown, N.Y., at 3:38 o'clock."
4. ^ "C. P. Rodgers' Aero Plunges into Surf at Long Beach. Hundreds See Tragedy. Hero of First Transcontinental Flight Victim of His Own Daring. When Lifted From Wrecked Machine His Neck Is Found to Be Broken. Birdman's Home in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Cousin of Lieut. Rodgers in Navy's Aerial Corps. Victim Author of Theory of 'Etherial Asphyxia.'". Washington Post. April 4, 1912. "Long Beach, California, April 3, 1912. Calbraith P. Rodgers, the first man to cross the American continent in an aeroplane, was killed here almost instantly late today, when his biplane, in which he had been soaring over the ocean, fell from a height of 200 feet and buried him in the wreck. His neck was broken and his body mangled by the engine of his machine."
5. ^ Pattillo, Donald M. (February 28, 2001). Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 14\. ISBN 9780472086719. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
6. ^ "Fokker T-2". Collections. National Air and Space Museum. Archived from the original on March 11, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
7. ^ Meister, Richard L. Jr. (2000). "The Flight of the Spokane Sun-God". Aerofiles. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
8. ^ "Glider is Towed by Plane Across the Nation". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. 1930. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
9. ^ "Fastest Service Coast to Coast". www.timetableimages.com. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
10. ^ Merritt, Larry (2003). "From mail-sack seats to sleeping berths and above-cloud routes". Boeing Frontiers. Boeing. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
11. ^ Proctor, Jon; Machat, Mike; Kodera, Craig (2010). "The Jet Age Begins, Or Does It? (1949–1952)". From Props to Jets: Commercial Aviation's Transition to the Jet Age 1952–1962. North Branch, Minnesota: Specialty Press. p. 26\. ISBN 978-1580071994. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
12. ^ "Biography of John H. Glenn". History. NASA. November 12, 2008. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
13. ^ "Fokker T-2". www.nasm.si.edu. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012.
14. ^ "Frank Hawks: The Story of the Legendary Speed Flying King » HistoryNet". Aviation History. November 6, 2006. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
15. ^ Kinert 1967, p. 57
16. ^ The Flight of the Buhl Airsedan Spokane Sun-God first airplane to make a non-stop transcontinental round-trip flight
17. ^ Lockheed Sirius "Tingmissartoq", Charles A. Lindbergh Archived March 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine National Air and Space Museum
18. ^ Kinert 1967, p. 70
19. ^ "Travel Air (Model R) "Mystery S" – USA". The Aviation History On-Line Museum. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
20. ^ "Behind the name of Captain Frank M. Hawks, in aviation's record book today is set down the time of 12 hours, 25 minutes, 3 seconds for an eastward transcontinental flight, the fastest ever flown by man over the distance of 2,500 miles." Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, August 15, 1930; Valley Stream, New York; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press)
21. ^ Glines 1995, p. 154
22. ^ Glines 1995, p. 155
23. ^ Glines 1995, p. 159
24. ^ Glines 1995, p. 166
25. ^ Wildenberg, Thomas (2007). "A visionary ahead of his time: Howard Hughes and the U.S. Air Force – Part I: The Air Corps Design Competition". Air Power History. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
26. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20061207022428/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Hughes/EX28.htm
27. ^ "Sleek, Fast and Luckless". Time Inc. February 20, 1939. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Retrieved January 11, 2009.
28. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20080118102042/http://www.boeing.com/history/chronology/chron06.html
29. ^ "Najeeb E. Halaby". lonestarflight.org. Archived from the original on October 25, 2018. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
30. ^ "Fact Sheets : Operation Sun Run : Operation Sun Run". Archived from the original on May 3, 2009. Retrieved June 8, 2009.
31. ^ "Concorde | the Museum of Flight".
32. ^ Larry Lange (November 5, 2003). "Thousands welcome Concorde to Seattle". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
33. ^ "Flights & Flyers", Time, May 12, 1930, archived from the original on September 30, 2007

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Glines, Carroll V. 1995. Roscoe Turner; Aviation's Master Showman. Smithsonian Institution Press ISBN 1-56098-798-7
* Kinert, Reed. 1967. Racing Planes and Air Races: A Complete History, Vol.2 1924–1931. Aero Publishers Inc ASIN B000J40KCU

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