OPERATION POWER FLIGHT: A Report on the First Non-Stop Jet Aircraft Flight Around the World

Major Patrick E. Montoya

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The newspaper headlines of the afternoon of 18 January 1957 told the story: Three B-52’s circle the world in 4j hours and 19 minutes. It was the first non-stop circumnavigation of the earth by jet aircraft, and elapsed time was 49 hours less than that required by a pistonengine bomber, a B-50, which had established the previous record eight years earlier. To the world at Iarge this was an historic achievement in aeronautics, but to the Strategic Air Command and its 93d Bombardment Wing it meant a great deal more. The landing of the three B-52’s at March Air Force Base in California climaxed one of the smoothest operations in Air Force records, and proved that we have the support necessary to send the B-52 anywhere in the world-round trip. In this flight the B-52 proved itself an extremely reliable aircraft. In fact, the three planes completing the flight were in such excellent mechanical condition when they arrived over March that in all probability they could have gone around again.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 5, Number 5
Pages:	203 - 209
Cite this article:	Montoya, Major Patrick E., "OPERATION POWER FLIGHT: A Report on the First Non-Stop Jet Aircraft Flight Around the World", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 5, No. 5, 1957, pp. 203-209.
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