Next summer marks 70 years since John Glenn etched his name into aviation history, setting a transcontinental speed record by flying from California to Brooklyn in just over three hours. Now, historian Adam Sackowitz argues it’s time for New York City to commemorate that achievement with something more permanent than ticker tape.
The Flight That Made History
On July 16, 1957—six years before he would orbit Earth as an astronaut—Glenn piloted an F-8U-1P Crusader jet from California to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn at speeds exceeding 725 mph. The flight, dubbed Project Bullet, required three midair refuelings and produced the first continuous photographic record of America’s coast-to-coast landscape. Glenn received the Distinguished Flying Cross for the mission, a prelude to becoming a household name during the Space Race.
A City That Celebrated Him Twice
New York famously fĂŞted Glenn with massive parades after both his 1962 Earth orbit and his 1998 return to space at age 77 aboard the Space Shuttle. The 1962 celebration drew an estimated four million people to Broadway—a reception comparable to Charles Lindbergh’s 1927 ticker-tape parade.
The Case for a Memorial
Sackowitz, who studied Glenn’s life, notes that the aviator’s legacy predates NASA. ‘This was before he was John Glenn the astronaut,’ he writes, pointing to the 1957 flight as an overlooked milestone. With the 70th anniversary approaching, Sackowitz proposes a statue at Floyd Bennett Field, where Glenn ended his record-setting journey—a site now part of the National Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area. The historian suggests such a monument could inspire new generations at a time when, in his view, America lacks unifying heroes.
Source: www.americanthinker.com — https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/11/honoring-john-glenn-s-record-breaking-flight/