U. S. Plane Circles World, Non-Stop

Giant B-50 Refuels in Flight During Historical 94-Hour Global Journey

FORT WORTH, TEX. >> An American Air Force bomber today completed history's first nonstop flight around the world.

The Lady Luck II, a

B-50 bomber, set down at Carswell air force base at 7:30:55 a.m. PST — 94 hours and one minute after it left there Saturday.

Refueling on the fly, it circled the globe at nearly its greatest girth, covering 23,106 miles at an average of 239 miles per hour.

Tired and happy, its crew of 14 climbed down slowly from the silvernosed ship, convinced that their aerial refueling technice, American bombers, “can go anywhere in the world at any time.”

The top command of the air force came down from Washington to welcome the 14 men. Air Secretary Symington shook their hands, told them “you've done a wonderful job, this is the finest team work.”…

Capt. James Gallagher, pilot and spokesman for the crew, in a news conference said: “Everything was quite normal about the whole flight. Everything worked out well.”

There was “not a bit of trouble” in the tricky business of contacting the refueling tanker planes and bringing aboard a gash replenishment load.

Yes, said the captain, they were all pretty tired, “but we did very well on sleep” during the four day flight.

The 14 men were two for each position, so they relieved each other at the controls.

The crewmen had support in high places for their belief that this flight showed the combat capabilities of the aerial refueling technique.

Gen. Curtis E. Leman, chief of the strategic air command, was asked if this “means you can use refueling to deliver an A bomb anywhere in Russia.” The general replied: “Let's say any place that would require an atom bomb.

“Now we can put bombers and tankers any time where necessary.” …

— Enterprise-Record,

March 2, 1949