This was the world record holder for unrefuelled piston-engined endurance for over 40 YEARS until Burt Rutan's Voyager circumnavigated the globe:
"In late September 1946 a new milestone in aviation history was set, an 11,236-mile non-stop, non-refueled flight from Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio. The plane, a US Navy Neptune patrol aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed and nicknamed "Truculent Turtle," was specially fitted with extra gasoline tanks to test its capacity for long-distance flight.
The crew of four made the trip in 55 hours and 17 minutes, at an average speed of 204 mph. Their only passenger was a young kangaroo named Joey, a gift from the Australian people to the National Zoo in Washington."
http://www.geocities.com/lucktam/awa...1.htm#tructurt