Record Flight

As the bomber flies it is 205 miles from Fort Worth to Barksdale Field in Shreveport, La. Last week the Air Force announced that one of its RB-45s (North American's four-jet light bomber, which ordinarily has a top speed of about 550 m.p.h.) had covered the distance in a cool 13 min. 50 sec. Captain John J. Mackey had accidentally picked up a lift from the jet airstream, the high-velocity wind that zigzags unpredictably through the substratospheric sky (TIME, Oct. 16). His average speed for the flight: 886 m.p.h., a figure which the Air Force modestly admitted was probably a record--at least for that type of plane.

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