Transcontinental flight

src: greenflightinternational.com

A transcontinental flight commonly refers to a non-stop passenger flight between an airport in the West Coast of the United States and an airport in the East Coast of the United States.

Video Transcontinental flight

History

The first transcontinental flight across the United States was made by Calbraith Perry Rodgers in an attempt to win the Hearst prize offered by publisher William Randolph Hearst. Hearst offered a $US 50,000 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.

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, he flew to Long Beach, California, and symbolically taxied his plane into the Pacific Ocean.

Maps Transcontinental flight

Timeline

• 1911 James J. Ward, failed attempt
• 1911 Henry Atwood, failed attempt
• 1911 Calbraith Perry Rodgers start: September 17, 1911, at 4:30 pm; finish: November 5, 1911
• 1912 (circa) Robert George Fowler
• 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
• 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).
• 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.
• 1933 Non-stop transcontinental passenger flights in as little as 20 hours using the Boeing 247.
• 1934 First three-stop airline flights (TWA DC-2s)
• 1946 First one-stop airline flights (TWA Constellations)
• 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.

src: theairlinelounge.com

Transcontinental air speed record

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

src: greenflightinternational.com

Junior transcontinental air speed record

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

src: imgproc.airliners.net

Women's transcontinental air speed record

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

src: www.aopa.org

See also

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

src: upload.wikimedia.org

References

src: c8.alamy.com

Bibliography

• 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

Source of article : Wikipedia