1945 Japan–Washington flight
An illustration of the flight path. The three bombers take parallel routes off the coast of Siberia, pass through Alaska, follow the Canadian west coast and then the U.S./Canada border before turning gradually towards Chicago. A dotted line marks the path from Chicago to Washington D.C. | |
| Date | September 18–19, 1945 |
|---|---|
| Location | Japan, United States |
| Participants | Barney M. Giles Emmett O'Donnell Jr. Curtis LeMay |
The 1945 Japan–Washington flight was a record-breaking air voyage made by three modified Boeing B-29 Superfortresses on September 18–19, 1945, from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō nonstop to Chicago in the Midwestern United States, and then onward to Washington, D.C. The flight was made by three United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) generals and other airmen returning to the United States from their overseas duty after World War II. It set records for the heaviest load carried by an American aircraft (144,000 lb, 65,300 kg), the longest nonstop flight by the USAAF (5,840 mi, 9,400 km), and the first nonstop flight from Japan to the United States by a complete aircraft.
The airmen aimed to fly 6,500 miles (10,460 km) nonstop to Washington, D.C., but after they encountered unexpected headwinds over Alaska Territory and Canada, they concluded that two of the aircraft lacked enough fuel. Instead, all three B-29s landed in Chicago, refueled, and continued to Washington, where each crewman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, including the three pilots: Generals Barney M. Giles, Emmett O'Donnell Jr. and Curtis LeMay.
The USAAF distance record was broken two months later, when another American aircrew flew a B-29 7,916 miles (12,740 km) from Guam to Washington, D.C., breaking the world distance record established by the Royal Air Force in 1938.
The Japan-to-Washington flight pioneered a route later used by airliners and demonstrated the reach of airpower during the nascent Cold War.