On this day in 1961, the crew of The Firefly, a Convair B-58 Hustler, won the Bleriot Trophy when they flew over 2,000 kilometers an hour for 30 minutes.
Established in 1930 by aviation pioneer Louis Charles Joseph Bleriot, the trophy was awarded to the crew of three, capping more than 30 years of aircraft experimentation and refinement.
Later in 1961, the same plane set a speed record en route from New York to the Paris Air Show, traveling between the two cities in just under 3 hours and 20 minutes.
The black and white marble trophy, below, is on permanent display at the McDermott Library of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The trophy was presented to the B-58 crew by Alice Védères Blériot, widow of Louis Bleriot.
Read the original New York Times article on the trophy