Transcontinental air speed record

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These are records for flight between coasts in North America.

[edit] Transcontinental air speed record

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

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Year	Date	Time	Direction	Pilot	Aircraft	Notes and reference
1911	September 17, 1911	3 days, 10 hours and 14 minutes in air time	East to West	Calbraith Perry Rodgers	Wright biplane	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, 1919	3 days, 3 hours, 5 minutes[1]	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, 1922	21 hours 19 minutes	East to West	Jimmy Doolittle	DH-4	Flew from Pablo Beach, Florida, to San Diego, California, with only one refueling stop[2]
1923	June 23, 1923	20 hours, 48 minutes	East to West	Russell Maughan	P-1 Hawk	First transcontinental flight during hours of daylight. See also "Dawn-to-dusk" transcontinental flight across the United States, New York City to San Francisco, average speed 128 miles per hour
1929				Frank Hawks
1929		18 hours and 43 minutes	East to West	Roscoe Turner		New York City to Los Angeles
1929		12 hours and 25 minutes	West to East	Frank Hawks		Los Angeles to New York City
1929		14 hours and ? minutes	East to West	Frank Hawks		New York City to Los Angeles
1930		14 hours and 45 minutes	West to East	Charles A. Lindbergh		Los Angeles to New York City. "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. It is farther by more than two hours the time made Easter Sunday by Colonel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh. Their record was 14 hours and 45 minutes." Source: Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, August 15, 1930; Valley Stream, New York; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press)
1930		12 hours and 25 minutes	West to East	Frank Hawks		Los Angeles to New York City. "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. It is farther by more than two hours the time made Easter Sunday by Colonel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh. Their record was 14 hours and 45 minutes." Source: Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, August 15, 1930; Valley Stream, New York; August 14, 1930 (Associated Press)
1930	November 14, 1930	12 hours and 33 minutes	East to West	Roscoe Turner		New York City to Burbank, California. He set the East-West transcontinental airspeed record at 12 hours and 33 minutes. Turner bettered by two hours and 17 minutes the former mark set by Frank Hawks.
1931		11 hours, 16 minutes, 10 seconds	West to East	Jimmy Doolittle	1931 Laird “Super Solution”	Completed for a bonus prize after winning the inaugural Bendix Trophy race, Los Angeles to Newark, averaged 217 miles per hour[3]
1932	August 29, 1932	10 hours, 19 minutes	West to East	Jim Haizlip	WW 44	Completed after winning the 2nd annual Bendix Trophy race.[4]
1936	January 13, 1936	9 hours and 27 minutes	West to East	Howard Hughes		Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey. Hughes took off from Burbank, California, on January 13, 1936, en route to Newark, New Jersey, and a new cross-country record. He made the flight in 9 hours, 27 minutes, 10 seconds, and bettered Roscoe Turner's previous mark by 36 minutes. [5]
1937	January 19, 1937	7 hours and 28 minutes	West to East	Howard Hughes		Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey
1939		7 hours and ? minutes	West to East	Ben Kelsey		Marsh Field, California to Mitchel Field, New York
1945	January 9, 1945	6 hours 4 minutes	West to East	Curtin L. Reinhardt	C-97 Stratofreighter	Seattle to Washington, D.C., average speed 383 mph[6]
1949	February 8, 1949	3 hours 46 minutes	West to East		B-47 Stratojet	Washington State to Maryland, 607.8 mph average[7]
1957	November 27, 1957	3 hours, 7 minutes	West to East		F-101 Voodoo	"Operation Sun Run" with 4 F-101s using in-air refueling, Southern California to New York, 781.7 mph West to East leg, 721.8 mph roundtrip average[8][9]
1990	March 6, 1990	64 minutes	West to East	Ed Yeilding and Joseph T. Vida	SR-71 Blackbird	Flying to museum at retirement of the aircraft, Los Angeles to Virginia's coast, average speed 2,124 mph (3,418 km/h)[10]

[edit] Junior transcontinental air speed record

For the junior record only in-flight time is counted

Year	Date	Time	Pilot	Aircraft	Reference
1930	October 4, 1930	East to West in 23 hours and 47 minutes	Robert Nietzel Buck	PA-6 Pitcairn 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, and 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 and 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 and 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 and 14 minutes.
1930		East to West in 32 hours and ? minutes	Frank Goldsborough		Combined East to West and West to East in 62 hours and 58 minutes. [11]
1929			Richard James (aviator)		Previous "record" of 48 hours, set last year by 18-year-old Richard James, was spread over a month elapsed time. Average speed, 607.8 mph[12]