An 89-year-old former dentist from New Jersey is believed to have potentially set a new world record by piloting a single-engine plane across the Atlantic Ocean in a bold 10-hour flight.
Ed Galkin, who will be 90 next March, completed the flight from Portugal to St. John’s in Newfoundland, Canada, on Wednesday. He was joined by co-pilot Peter Teahen as part of the Flight to End Polio fundraising initiative.
The event’s organizers claim that Galkin may now hold the title of the oldest person to navigate a single-engine aircraft across the Atlantic, and they have sought confirmation from Guinness World Records.
In an interview with CTV News during a layover in St. John’s, Galkin expressed his enthusiasm, saying: “I love flying. Being up here is amazing. It’s a vast ocean, and many of the issues you think you have just aren’t as significant.”
The pair are approaching the conclusion of a 37-day, 8,800-mile expedition that started in New Jersey, which has already amassed tens of thousands of dollars for Rotary International’s polio immunization efforts.
With donations being matched two-to-one by the Gates Foundation, organizers believe they will surpass their $1 million goal.
Teahen, 72, shared with CTV News that the cause resonates personally with him: “I’ve been to hospitals and have seen children suffering from polio.”
‘We’ve seen the horror of polio and the ugliness of it, but we’ve seen the greatness of Rotary and all these other organizations, united together to end polio.’
Ed Galkin, 89, may have become the oldest pilot to complete a transatlantic flight in a single-engine aircraft
Ed Galkin’s trusted Cessna 210 Centurion, the single-engine aircraft he bought in 1977 and has since flown more than 1.3 million miles, pictured landing in Newfoundland during his record-setting Flight to End Polio mission
Galkin is no stranger to record-breaking journeys.
According to NJ.com, he has flown around the world four times – in 1988, 2004, 2018 and 2022 – always in the same Cessna 210 Centurion he purchased in 1977.
Over the decades, he has logged more than 1.3 million miles in the aircraft.
His 2022 trip raised money for the Alzheimer’s Association, but this time he opted for a shorter mission.
‘I get a chance to do one more mission, to fly across the Atlantic,’ Galkin, a married father of two, grandfather of five and great-grandfather of six, told NJ Advance Media before takeoff.
Born in Newark and raised in Hoboken, Galkin retired from his dental practice in 2020 and still lives in Edison, New Jersey, where he and his wife Bobbie recently marked their 65th wedding anniversary.
Despite spending five weeks together in the cramped cockpit, he and Teahen say they have rarely clashed. ‘We definitely didn’t have too much difficulty handling each other,’ Galkin told CTV.
‘We’ve never been at a loss of words about what to talk about or tell jokes about,’ Teahen added.
Galkin and co-pilot Peter Teahen (right) are raising money for Rotary International’s global polio eradication effort
The pair’s mission has taken them through 11 countries, with their most daunting leg a 10-hour Atlantic crossing
Ed Galkin, 89, pictured during his travels – the retired New Jersey dentist is now on a 37-day, 8,800-mile Flight to End Polio mission that has already raised tens of thousands of dollars, with donations being matched two-to-one by the Gates Foundation
‘Sometimes I get irritable and sometimes he gets irritable, and usually within minutes we’re off talking about something else.’
Their route has included stops in France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Norway and Portugal, but the most daunting leg was the Atlantic crossing from the Azores to Newfoundland – roughly 10 hours over open ocean.
Galkin recalled: ‘The weather was pretty good. We had maybe two hours of moderate turbulence and a little bit of rain, but pretty much the trip was a normal routine flight for us. We were happy.’
Now, with only a few stops left before returning home to Central Jersey Regional Airport in Hillsborough, the pair are waiting to see if Galkin’s feat will be immortalized in the Guinness World Records.
As for what keeps him going? The almost-90-year-old offers a simple explanation: ‘I love flying.’
