Feb. 20, 1962 - Leigh Wade (pictured third from left in 1924) got out of bed at 6:30 a.m. today to watch on television as Lieut. Col. John Glenn Jr. beat by almost six months the time it took Mr. Wade and five companions to make the first globe-circling airplane flight in 1924. Mr. Wade, a retired Air Force major general, termed the astronaut’s three trips around the earth “a remarkable thing.” It took Mr. Wade and his companions 175 days to make the circuit in 1924, traveling in three single-engine planes. “I would have enjoyed being up there today,” he said. “It must be a wonderful feeling for Glenn. The longest distance we flew for any one stretch was 680 miles. Today, Glenn beat that within the first three minutes.”
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