Flying Gas Tank

At war's end the Japs had a long, skinny, twin-engine reconnaissance plane which could have taken off from Tokyo, scouted the U.S. West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles and got home again. So say the Japs. Early in July 1944, they claim, their A26 flew a record-breaking 10,160 miles nonstop in 57 hours, over a closed course* in Manchuria, and landed with enough fuel for another 1,870 miles.

Fifth Air Force technicians who found the A26 (one of the only two built) on an airdrome near Tokyo are inclined to believe the claim. Notable feature: fuel tanks cover 75% of the A-26's wing span, carry nine tons (3,219 gallons) of gasoline, accounting for some 54% of the plane's gross weight.

* Flown round & round a given course. Official closed-course record, certified by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale: 8,038 miles, flown by four Italian Army aviators in 1939. Long distance record: 7,158 miles, by two British Vickers-Wellesley planes, from Egypt to Australia, Nov. 5-7, 1938.

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