ARMED FORCES: New Jet Record

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Hoping to fly faster than the speed of the earth's rotation (1,080 m.p.h.), U.S. Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn Jr., 36, fell short of his hope, nevertheless last week jockeyed a pencil-nosed, silver-painted Navy F8U1 Crusader jet from Long Beach, Calif, to New York City for a new coast-to-coast record of 3 hr. 23 min. First to span the nation at supersonic speed, Pilot Glenn averaged 726 m.p.h. (or Mach 1.1 at his average flying altitude of 35,000 ft.), cut 21 minutes off the previous record established in March 1955 by Air Force Lieut. Colonel Robert R. Scott in a Republic F-84F jet. A pathfinder jet kept Glenn alerted to weather ahead. Three times—near Albuquerque, Olathe, Kans. and Indianapolis—he descended to 25,000 ft. to take aboard about 1,300 gallons of fuel from Navy tanker planes. He finally landed at the Navy's Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn with about 40 gallons—"enough," he reported, "to circle the field once." Promptly rewarded with his fourth Distinguished Flying Cross (he earned two D.F.C.s in World War II, another in Korea), Record-Breaker Glenn grinned: "Everything went smooth as silk."