During the Yaqui Campaign, Emilio continued planning long distance flights. He remembered that in 1924 as a cadet, and while taking a course on airplane construction, General Gustavo A. Salinas and Mr. Angel Lascurain y Osio, chief of military aeronautics and director of the airplane factory, had designed and built a monoplane with a 185 hp BMW engine. This airplane was built entirely of wood in order to fulfill a requirement for all construction materials to be readily available within Mexico, so that a large number of airplanes could be built. This aircraft was originally designated as the "Quetzalcoatl". Emilio remembered that this prototype had been set aside and forgotten upon General Salinas' replacement as director of the School of Military Aviation. A later high-ranking officer in charge of the school had ordered the Quetzalcoatls dismantled for safety reasons.

General Salinas was able to recover the one prototype that Emilio dreamed of having for his long-distance flights. By then, General Jose Luis Amezcua was Chief of Military Aeronautics and did not agree with the order to dismantle the "Quetzalcoatls", or more familiarly known as "tololoches". In his opinion, and in the opinion of many experts, the "Quetzalcoatls" were excellent flying machines, and their design and construction methods represented significant advancements for the time.

Following the "Yaqui Campaign" Emilio returned to Mexico City and started preparing for his non-stop flight from Mexico City to Ciudad Juarez.

On Friday September 2nd, 1927, at 5:50 am he took off from the Balbuena airfield on the "Coahuila", a Quetzalcoatl type monoplane which he named after the northern state where he was born. After a normal takeoff, he was escorted by Captain Verdeja in an Avro biplane through Tula, Hidalgo where he lost sight of the Coahuila. The Avro’s cruising speed was only 90 kph whereas the Quetzalcoatl's was 160 kph.

Two and a half hours later the first reports of the flight started coming in.

• At 8:25 am he had flown over San Luis Potosí.

• At 10:10 am, Torreón. It is hard to describe the enthusiasm generated by this flight, not only in aviation circles, but among the general public. Some radio stations continually broadcast the flight's progress and this, in turn, generated more interest.

• At 12:20 pm, Escalón.

• At 1:00 pm, Díaz.

• At 1:23 pm, La Cruz. He followed his flight plan exactly.

• At 1:48 pm he was sighted over Ortiz.

• At 2:44 pm he flew over Chihuahua.

Emilio's flight to Ciudad Juarez followed, by a few days, the successful non-stop flight from Mexico City to Nuevo Laredo made by Major Alfredo Lezama and Lieutenant David J. Borja, also in an airplane of Mexican construction.

The telegraph line specially dedicated to tracking his flight kept transmitting his progress.

• At 3:10 pm, Gallegos.

• At 3:17 pm, Moctezuma.

• At 3:44 pm, Ojo Caliente.

• At 3:55 pm, Villa Ahumada.

• At 4:06 pm, Lucero.

• At 4:30 pm Salamayuca, and finally,

• At 4:48 pm, Ciudad Juarez.

Although generally uneventful, there was a potentially dangerous incident on first non-stop flight from Mexico City to Ciudad Juarez. The Coahuila had a 185hp BMW engine with an ascending exhaust pipe that passed near the leading edge of the wooden wing. While flying over the northern state of Chihuahua, and perhaps due to excessive vibration or to rust buildup during the years the aircraft sat idle, the exhaust pipe broke and the hot exhaust fumes from the engine started heating up and charring the wooden wing. Upon seeing this potentially dangerous situation, Captain Carranza also noticed some rain clouds and altered his route to fly through the rain in order to moisten the wooden wing and avoid a fire.

Captain Carranza was well received in Ciudad Juarez, and the date of his arrival coincided with the arrival of Charles A. Lindbergh in El Paso on-board the Spirit of St. Louis while on a tour of the United States.

Functionaries of El Paso invited Captain Carranza, who spoke fluent English, to greet Charles Lindbergh. Upon being introduced, Lindbergh congratulated Carranza for his non-stop flight and thus started the friendship between the two aviators.

No one knows what happened to the Coahuila. The last known photograph of the aircraft was taken in October 1927 in Torreón, about a month after the Mexico to Ciudad Juarez flight. Perhaps the aircraft had mechanical problems. Shortly thereafter Captain Carranza was called to duty for the "Jalisco" campaign. It is doubtful that the Coahuila ever returned to Mexico City.