In 1911, eight years after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst offered a prize of $50,000 to the first aviator who could fly across the United States in 30 days or less. Nobody won the money. But a young pilot named Calbraith Perry “Cal” Rodgers made the crossing anyway, in a fragile Wright biplane that crashed so often it was nearly rebuilt on the way. His journey was the first transcontinental airplane flight, and it started a century of ever faster coast-to-coast records.
The Hearst prize
Hearst’s offer required a flight between the Atlantic and the Pacific, in either direction, within 30 days, and it expired in October 1911. Airplanes of the time had open seats, no instruments worth the name, and engines that ran for only a few hours between repairs. There were no airports, no weather reports for pilots and no aeronautical charts. Several aviators set out that fall; only Rodgers reached the other coast.
Cal Rodgers and the Vin Fiz
Rodgers came from a prominent naval family and had learned to fly at the Wright brothers’ school in Dayton, Ohio, only months earlier. He bought a Wright Model EX, a small single-seat biplane with a roughly 35-horsepower engine and a top speed of about 50 to 55 mph. The pilot sat in the open on the lower wing.
To pay for the attempt, Rodgers found a sponsor: the Armour meat-packing company, which was launching a grape soft drink called Vin Fiz. The name was painted in large letters on the wings, and the airplane became known as the Vin Fiz. Armour also paid for a special train that followed the flight with Rodgers’ wife Mabel, his mother, mechanics led by Charlie Taylor (the Wrights’ mechanic who had built the engine for the 1903 Flyer), and a railcar full of spare parts.
The flight, stage by stage
- September 17, 1911: Rodgers took off from Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn. The next day he crashed on takeoff near Middletown, New York, and needed several days of repairs.
- Across the Midwest: He followed railroad tracks for navigation, reaching Chicago in early October. By then it was clear he could not meet Hearst’s 30-day deadline. He decided to continue anyway.
- The southern route: To avoid the high Rocky Mountains, he turned south through Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma into Texas, passing through Dallas, San Antonio and El Paso.
- The desert: Crossing New Mexico, Arizona and the California desert, he battled engine failures, heat and wind.
- November 5, 1911: Rodgers landed at Tournament Park in Pasadena, California, cheered by a large crowd, 49 days after leaving New York.
Pasadena was not the ocean, so Rodgers set out for Long Beach. On November 12 he crashed near Compton and was badly hurt, including a broken ankle. On December 10, 1911, he completed the trip, landing on the beach at Long Beach and rolling the wheels into the Pacific surf.
The journey in numbers
- Distance: roughly 4,000 miles by the winding route
- Time in the air: about 82 hours
- Landings: around 70, planned and unplanned
- Crashes: more than a dozen, several of them serious
- Replacement parts: so many that only a few pieces of the original airplane, including the rudder and a wing strut, are said to have survived the whole trip
Rodgers carried a pair of crutches strapped to the airplane after one of his injuries. He did not win the prize, but he proved that an airplane could cross the continent.
Rodgers did not live long to enjoy his fame. On April 3, 1912, he died when his aircraft struck a bird and plunged into the surf off Long Beach, near the spot where he had ended his transcontinental flight. The restored Vin Fiz is part of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum collection.
Airmail and night flying
The next big step came with the US Air Mail Service. On February 22–23, 1921, pilots flew mail from San Francisco to New York in a day-and-night relay. The key night leg was flown by Jack Knight, who took over at North Platte, Nebraska, and, because the next pilot was missing, continued in darkness and bad weather through Omaha to Chicago. The success convinced Congress to keep funding airmail and led to a chain of lighted beacons along the transcontinental airway, allowing regular night flights.
The first nonstop crossing
On May 2–3, 1923, Army Air Service lieutenants Oakley G. Kelly and John A. Macready flew a heavily loaded Fokker T-2 nonstop from Roosevelt Field on Long Island to Rockwell Field in San Diego. The flight took about 26 hours 50 minutes. The two pilots traded places in flight through a narrow passage beside the engine. The T-2 is now also in the National Air and Space Museum.
Dawn to dusk
On June 23, 1924, Army Lieutenant Russell L. Maughan flew a Curtiss PW-8 fighter from Mitchel Field, New York, to San Francisco between dawn and dusk on the longest day of the year, with a handful of refueling stops. The flight showed that fighters could be moved across the country within a single day.
From air-rail trips to jet service
Passenger service followed. In 1929 Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), with Charles Lindbergh as technical adviser, opened an air-rail route: passengers flew Ford Trimotors by day and rode trains at night, reaching the other coast in about 48 hours. Through the 1930s, airliners such as the Douglas DC-3 made all-air coast-to-coast travel routine, though still with several stops. On January 25, 1959, American Airlines began the first scheduled transcontinental jet service with the Boeing 707, cutting the trip to about six hours.
Speed records
On January 19, 1937, Howard Hughes flew his H-1 racer from Burbank, California, to Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hours 28 minutes, an average of more than 320 mph. On March 6, 1990, on its retirement flight, a US Air Force SR-71 Blackbird crossed from the West Coast to Washington, D.C., in about 67 minutes, and covered the Los Angeles to Washington segment in about 64 minutes, a record that still stands.
Milestones at a glance
| Year | Milestone | Aircraft | Pilot or operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1911 | First transcontinental flight, 49 days to Pasadena | Wright EX Vin Fiz | Cal Rodgers |
| 1921 | First day-and-night transcontinental airmail | de Havilland DH-4 and others | US Air Mail Service, Jack Knight |
| 1923 | First nonstop crossing, about 26 h 50 min | Fokker T-2 | Oakley Kelly, John Macready |
| 1924 | Dawn-to-dusk crossing | Curtiss PW-8 | Russell Maughan |
| 1929 | Air-rail passenger service in about 48 hours | Ford Trimotor | Transcontinental Air Transport |
| 1937 | Speed record, 7 h 28 min | Hughes H-1 | Howard Hughes |
| 1959 | First scheduled transcontinental jet service | Boeing 707 | American Airlines |
| 1990 | Los Angeles to Washington in about 64 min | SR-71 Blackbird | US Air Force |
Frequently Asked Questions
Who made the first flight across the United States?
Cal Rodgers, in the Wright EX Vin Fiz, from September 17 to November 5, 1911, with the final leg to the Pacific at Long Beach on December 10, 1911.
Did Rodgers win the Hearst prize?
No. The prize required a crossing within 30 days. Rodgers took 49 days to reach Pasadena.
When was the first nonstop flight across the US?
May 2–3, 1923, by Oakley Kelly and John Macready in a Fokker T-2, from New York to San Diego.
What is the fastest coast-to-coast flight?
The SR-71 Blackbird’s 1990 flight, which crossed the country in about 67 minutes.
