ROUND THE WORLD IN 73 HOURS

Chronicle (Levin), 12 August 1947, Page 5

ROUND THE WORLD IN 73 HOURS

CHICAGO, August 10. Triumphant, Iiut haggard from lack of sleep, Captain Bill Odom landed ai Chicago after having gone round the world faster tlian any man before. A huge crowd welcomerl liim at Chicago aerodrome, including his vvife, two children, his parents, and Mr. Alilton Keynolds, who sponsored the flight. Odom had been virtuaJly withput sleep since he left Chicago three days before, and his fatigue nearly caused disaster between Anchorage- (Alaska) and Edmonton (Canada) when he feli asleep for 100 minutes while in fiigiu. "I was flying at 20,000 feet and when I avvoke i had dropped to 16,000 feet, and was headiug slraiglit at a mountain peak. It made rne sick in iny stomach for a few minutes." Odom got no other sleep except catTiajis mosLly while standing up during his short refuelling stojis at Gander, Paris, Cairo, [Caraclii, Calcutta, Toltio, Anchorage, and Fargo. He lived on sandwiches, scrambled eggs, and benzedrine pills. Odom's time for the flight — 73 hours five minutes — eclipsed the former solo record of 186J hours, made by Wiley Post in 1933, but Odom also bloke the record of 78 hours 55 minutes for an aircraft with a crew. That record hau been set in April by Odom himself, Mr. Milton Keynolds aiul Mr. T. C. Saies in the same plane Odom used for tlie solo flight. The plane, which is named the Revnolds Bombshell, is a converted twinengined army attack bomber. Wiley Post flew a single-engined second-hanu aircraft, and had inferior navigation facilities. However, his route took him over 15,59(5 miles, whereas Odom flew 19,889 miles in April and in the solo flight flew 19,645 miles at an average speed of about 269 miles an hour, including ground time. Odom's average flight speed was 310.5 miles an hour. Odom, who is 6ft 2in tall and is aged 27, neither drinks nor smokes. During the war he flew the North Atlantie as a co-pilot for Ameriean Export Lines, captained R.A.F. bombers for delivery hops from Canada to England, and made -102 flights over the Burnia hump. He first wanted to be a five? at the age of 13 when he met Wiley Post, who gave him an autographed bit of Post's famous plane. Odom's new ambition is to fly arouncf ihe world the hard way — crossing bott Poles.