Solo Flights around the World

The solo flight of Peter Gluckman is better known than that of Peter Mack's.

Indeed, Peter Gluckman set a world record flying around the World, and his flight is recorded in the archives of the Federation Aeronautique Internationnale in Lausanne, Switzerland. To lodge a 'round the world record', a requirement of the FAI is for the pilot to keep and submit a log of the flight. Gluckman did this, and his log can be found in Lausanne.

Gluckman used a Meyers 200A aeroplane. Very little is known of this aircraft, except that it was a single engine, low wing machine. The photo kept in the FAI archives shows it with the words Ť Experimental ť on the side, indicating the aircraft was not in the normal category, probably due to the extra weight of ferry tanks necessary for the long legs of the 'round the world' flight.

Gluckman left San Fransisco on August 22d 1959, landing in Mazatlan in Mexico, only to discover this airport was not an airport of entry, which caused him many problems. These troubles continued the following day when Gluckman landed in San Jose in Guatemala, instead of Tapachula in Mexico, complaining that his planning charts lacked the required detail, being on a scale of 1: 5 000 000. It is hard to imagine such a lack of preparation for a flight of this magnitude. He then flew to Kingston in Jamaica after a short refueling stop in Puerto Barrios, and still in Guatemala.

On August 26th, Gluckman landed in San Jose in Puerto Rico, and on the same day, after a very long flight , he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to land in Santa Maria in the Azores. The flights lasted 18 hours.

After a refueling stop in Benghazi. Gluckman landed at Cairo in Egypt, and without taking any rest, continued on to arrive in Karachi in Pakistan on August 30th, having completed a 15 hour flight. Due to a sore eye, Gluckman was forced to take a rest day before resuming his flight and arriving in New Delhi on the 1st September, and Calcutta on the 2nd, after a 7 hour flight.

On September 3rd, Gluckman left for Manila in the Philippines, but bad weather forced him to stop in Bangkok, in Thailand. He finally arrived in Manila after a ten hour flight. With the autopilot in-operative, he hoped to be able to find parts in Tokyo.

Gluckman departed for Tokyo on September 6th, but cyclone Louise forced him to divert to Hong Kong. After a 12 hour flight he arrived in Tokyo on September 7th. His final approach into Tokyo was on instruments.

On September 10th, Gluckman departed Tokyo for Wake Island, only to return again with the engine running rough. He changed all the spark plugs and the oil filter, and resumed his flight. At 4000ft., the engine started to run rough, and also to vibrate, so once again Gluckman returned to Tokyo where he went over the whole aircraft with a fine tooth comb, but could find nothing wrong. On September 15th Gluckman landed safely in Wake after a 15 hour flight.

In Wake, Gluckman changed the voltage regulator and the battery. The regulator seized up, damaging the battery. A new battery ordered in Hawaii, was flown in, delaying him two days. Gluckman took off at 5am on September 18th for the long flight to Hawaii. As he crossed the date line, he arrived in Hawaii on September 17th.after a flight of 18 hours 15 minutes.

Gluckman finally arrived in San Fransisco, his departure point, on September 29th, after a flight of 17 hours and 30 minutes..

The total time for the flight was 29 days 6 hours and 9 minutes. Gluckman covered 23,765 miles or 38,238 km., which was the first 'around the world' record, achieved by a solo pilot. The speed of the record was 53.76 km/h. This record remained until 1961, it was broken by Max Conrad with a speed of 198.27 km/h.

One must reflect on the duration of those long legs, and also the fact that apart from his eye and battery problems, Gluckman did not take any rest, but kept flying, day after day.

Peter Gluckman disappeared in 1959 at sea after taking off from Tokyo in another record attempt.