# Who had the first case of jet lag? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 20, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786 "2007-03-20T22:44:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/1 "2007-03-20T22:44:45Z")
Defining jet lag as something like moving across time zones fast enough to get one’s body clock significantly out of sync with local time: who, or at least when, would the first case have been? I would imagine travel by train or car would not be fast enough for long enough to do this. I guess a journey would need to cross at least 4 timezones to cause it, but I’m not sure how fast you’d have to go. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/2 "2007-03-20T23:05:18Z")
This is still a rather subjective question but I would vote for this person: "First Jet Aircraft to make a non-stop Transatlantic Flight February 21 1951. An RAF Canberra B Mk 2 (serial numbe WD932) flown by Sqd Ldr A Callard, became the first jet aircraft to make a non-stop transatlantic flight when it flew from Aldergrove, Northern Ireland to Gander, Newfoundland. The flight covered almost 1,800 miles in 4h 37m. The aircraft was being flown to the U.S. to act as a pattern aircraft for the Martin B-57." > **[Transatlantic flight](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight)** > > A transatlantic flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe, Africa, South Asia, or the Middle East to North America, Latin America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, airships, balloons and other aircraft. > Early aircraft engines did not have the reliability nor the power to lift the required fuel to make a transatlantic flight. There were difficulties navigating over the featureless expanse of water for thousands of miles, and the w... ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/3 "2007-03-20T23:57:04Z")
Icarus? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/4 "2007-03-21T15:07:55Z")
Could it not be true that the first person to suffer from “jet lag” not necessarily have traveled by jet? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/5 "2007-03-21T15:23:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Could it not be true that the first person to suffer from “jet lag” not necessarily have traveled by jet? Well, it could be “prop-plane” jag, but I think you have to consider it as due to powered air travel. Travel by train, boat, or balloon probably wouldn’t get you across enough time zones in a day to make the difference in time an issue. It wasn’t until people could gain or lose multiple hours (trather than just one) that this would make a difference in their internal schedules. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/6 "2007-03-21T16:02:16Z")
Yeah the average person adjusts at about one hour per day to jet lag, so they’d have to travel across at least two time zones to feel any effect (and that’s pretty mild.) At the equator you’d need to travel about 3000 kms to cross two time zones, as you get closer to the poles though the distance becomes smaller. I would’ve thought the first people to suffer from jet lag would be those carrying out some of the pioneering long distance flights early in the twentieth century. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/7 "2007-03-26T04:13:20Z")
Whoops, forgot about this thread! I put it down to jetlag - really. Lindy flew from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours and they are 6 hours apart in timezone. By **Death Ray** ’s formula of an hour a day that gives him about 4 hours’ lag, but I rather doubt he noticed that after having been sleepless for that period. **Shagnasty** ’s nomination covered 3.5 hours time changes in 4.5 hours which gives them about 3 hours’ lag so I think that would definitely count. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/8 "2007-03-26T05:41:10Z")
oddly enough, I changed 15 hours twice in the past 5 days and got in yesterday. siberia was really beautiful but hours and hours of a frozen wasteland any US to europe plane flights by a crew would have noticeable jet lag pre-dating Lindy. probably NY to LA - especially in the morning, but you probably had the same minor effect on one of the record breaking coast to coast trains slight hijack, IMHExperience, day per time zone adjustment is too little when travellers transpose night and day. takes up to a week to feel decent & two weeks to be fully in the zone. ambian is your friend. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/9 "2007-03-26T09:44:19Z")
Maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but transposing night and day is a timezone change of 12 hours which would take about 12 days to adjust to, that agrees with your experience. At any rate, the hour per day thing is a rough guide and it varies greatly between individuals. You can’t really do a 15 hour change either. As far as your body is concerned it is a 9 hour change. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2007, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-had-the-first-case-of-jet-lag/396786/10 "2007-03-26T14:25:07Z")
[QUOTE=Askance] Lindy flew from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours. [/QUOTE] But note that Lindbergh was actually the 104th person to fly across the Atlantic. (His flight captured public fancy and became famous because it was done solo and went much further than any previous effort - New York to Paris.) The first non-stop flight was by [John Alcock & Arthur Brown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcock_and_Brown) in 1919 - they did Newfoundland to Ireland in just under 16 hours.