Noisy Record

It was a far cry from the propeller-driven days of Jimmy Doolittle, Jackie Cochran, reciprocating engines, wheel pants and struts. Civilians no longer could afford to compete, and according to present procedure, only one service was invited. But early one day last week, five Navy F4H-1 Phantom II jets roared down the runway at Los Angeles International Airport and raced eastward. Their goals: Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field, a new transcontinental speed record, and the Bendix Trophy--one of the most coveted awards in U.S. aviation.

Aboard each of the two-man, tvvin-engined jets was a Navy pilot and a radar-intercept officer, whose job was to navigate and handle communications. Each mile of the transcontinental trip was meticulously plotted, and electronic computers calculated the precise place and time at which mid-air refueling would be required (near Albuquerque, St. Louis and Pittsburgh). Using afterburners for maximum speed--more than 1,300 m.p.h.--the jets kept to an altitude of 50,000 ft. except for refueling, when they throttled back to less than 600 m.p.h. and dropped to 30,000 ft. to rendezvous with waiting tankers. By the time the racers had braked to a stop in Brooklyn, drag parachutes billowing behind, three had cracked the old transcontinental record of 3 hr. 5 min. 39.2 sec. set in 1957 by Air Force Lieut. Gustav Klatt in an RF-101 Voodoo jet. The winning time, posted by Lieut. Richard Gordon Jr. and Lieut, (j.g.) Bobbie Young: 2 hr. 47 min. In New Jersey and New York, angry householders complained that the sonic booms from the swift-flying planes had also cracked assorted crockery and windows.

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