James Gallagher

The first non-stop flight around the world was made by a team of US Air Force flyers in 1949. Taking off from Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas on 26 February, Captain James Gallagher and a crew of 14 headed east in a B-50 Superfortress, called Lucky Lady II. They were refueled four times in air by KB-29 tanker planes of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron, over the Azores, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and Hawaii. The circumnavigation was completed on 2 March, having traveled 94 hours and 1 minute, covering 37,743 km, or 23,452 miles, at an average 398 km/h or 249 mph.
~Philip Lord, Belgrade, MN