Less than a week after inaugurating
separate nonstop services from Los Angeles and New York to
Tokyo with its brand-new bob-tailed
“Special Performance” jumbo jet, the 747SP, Pan American sent another SP, the
Clipper “Liberty Bell,” on a one-shot globe-circling promotional jaunt on which
several records were set.
The plane first flew 8,081 miles nonstop from New York to Delhi, India, in 13 hours, 31 minutes (average flying speed, 598 mph); then 7,539 miles from Delhi to Tokyo in 14 hours, 1 second (536 mph); and finally 7,517 miles from Tokyo to New York in 11 hours, 53 minutes (641 mph). The total elapsed time of the 23,137-mile trip was 46 hours, 50 seconds, easily beating the previous round-the-world record of over 62 hours set in 1965.
This cover was carried on the May 1, 1976 Pan American flight from the John F Kennedy Airport Mail Facility in New York around the world to New York (where it was backstamped) and is listed in the Foreign Air Mail Flights (FAM) section of The American Air Mail Catalogue was F18-465F.