Transcontinental flight

Transcontinental flight is travelling by air from the Atlantic Ocean coast to the Pacific Ocean coast, or in the reverse.

The first transcontinental flight was made by Calbraith Perry Rodgers to win the prize offered by publisher William Randolph Hearst. He 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. 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". The previous attempt was made by Henry Atwood. Rodgers left from Sheepshead Bay, New York on September 17, 1911 at 4:30 pm. He crossed the Rocky Mountains on November 5, 1911 and landed at Tournament Park in Pasadena, California at 4:04, in front of a crowd of 20,000 people. He had missed the prize deadline by 19 days. On December 10, 1911 he landed at Long Beach, California and symbolically taxied his plane into the Pacific Ocean. He had carried the first transcontinental mail pouch and was accompanied on the ground by a support crew that repaired and rebuilt the plane after each crash landing. The trip required 70 stops. His flight was followed by Robert D. Fowler.

Timeline

*1911 Henry Atwood
*1911 Calbraith Perry Rodgers
*1912 (circa) Robert D. Fowler
*1930 Frank Hawks in April
*1957 then-Major John H. Glenn, Jr., USMC, on 16 July

ee also

*Transcontinental airspeed record
*Flight altitude record
*Transcontinental railroad