Faster, Faster!

Visibility was little more than a mile when Colonel William H. Councill sent his pencil-slim Lockheed P-80 fighter whooshing down the runway at Long Beach, Calif. With its turbojet propulsion, the Shooting Star could cover a mile in six seconds. Councill climbed out of the mists, turned on his oxygen, headed for New York. Cities seven miles beneath him began to flash past: La Junta, Colo. (870 miles) in 1 hr. 38 min.; Salina, Kans. (1,190 miles) in 2 hr. 9 min.; Chanute Field, Ill. (1,700 miles) in 3 hr. 2 min. A tail wind pushed the Shooting Star's speed up to 660 m.p.h.--little less than the speed of sound.

Only 4 hr. 13 min. and 26 sec. after leaving Long Beach, the stocky, 34-year-old veteran of South Pacific combat buzzed LaGuardia Field. He had flown at an average speed of 584 m.p.h., trimmed 64 min. off the B-29's transcontinental record, only seven weeks old. Councill's first words as he pushed the canopy back: "Who the hell's got a drink?"

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