WESTOVER AIR FORCE BASE, MASS., FRIDAY JUNE 27—(UPl) THE FIRST OF
FOUR SWEPT-WING JET STRATOTANKERS SCHEDULED TO ATTEMPT TO SET JET-AGE SPEED RECORDS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN TOOK OFF JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
The news tickers were already aclatter with the bulletins late that night, as the second of four Boeing KC-135 jet tankers lined up on Runway 23 at Westover. The rain that fell a few hours earlier had washed away the fog, and now visibility was good, and the skies were smeared with only a slight overcast. The first plane, Alpha, was skyborne; next came Bravo, and it poured down the runway, lifted up, trailing four black swirls of smoke. The third tanker, Cocoa, rolled into take-off position and got ready to follow.
Inside Cocoa, strapped into parachutes and Mae Wests, buckled to seats, heavily helmeted, sat Brigadier General Donald W. Saunders, 45, commander of the four-plane mission; a six-man crew headed by Plane Commander Lieut. Colonel George Broutsas, 39; and eight civilians. William J. Cochran, 36, and William R. Enyart, 57, were officials of the National Aeronautic Association who were making the trip as official observers. The other six were newsmen assigned to cover the record-making flight: the U.S. News & World Report's A. Robert Ginsburgh, 63, a retired Air Force brigadier general, and Glen A. Williams, 41; TIME-LIFE'S Washington Bureau Chief James L. McConaughy Jr., 42; the Boston Traveler's veteran aviation writer, Robert B. Sibley, 57; United Press International's foreign affairs writer Norman J. Montellier, 37; Associated Press's Daniel J. Coughlin Jr., 31.
Point of Commitment. Plane Commander Broustas, an 5,000-hour Strategic Air Force veteran and one of the most experienced of all KC-135 pilots, got his take-off clearance from Westover Tower at 12:30. Broustas acknowleged the tower, moved his four throttles up to full power, released his brakes and began to roll. The plane picked up speed but not quickly; it was carrying thousands of pounds of fuel. It passed its V-1 and V-2 marks—the last point for chopping throttles, and the point of commitment to take-off—and broke ground exactly at the predetermined spot.