Pilot Calbraith Rodgers, on November 5, 1911, landed his airplane in Long Beach, California, thus completing the first flight from one end of the United States to the other.

This flight, the pilot Rodgers made to win the prize of 50 thousand dollars offered by the publisher of a newspaper for the first flight from one side of the country to the other in 30 days.

His airplane was little bigger than a balloon with a 35 horsepower engine. Mr. Rodgers took off from New York’s Sheepshead Bay and during the first day he covered 134 kilometers, flying a total of 105 minutes, reports ksp.

He described this as a “successful beginning”. However, efforts to start the journey the next day were more typical of this enterprise. He crashed into a chicken coop and destroyed the plane.

His mechanics, who followed him on a special train, rebuilt the plane within 40 hours and Mr Rodgers was back in the air.

He spent a total of 82 hours and 10 minutes in the air, making 70 stops over 49 days to cover the distance from one end of the country to the other.

Although he did not make the trip within the time limit to win the prize money, Calbraith Rodgers became famous after he demonstrated that transcontinental flight was possible