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First aerial circumnavigation

October 28, 2023

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was completed in 1924 by four aviators from an eight-man team of the United States Army Air Service, the precursor of the United States Air Force. The 175-day journey covered over 26,345 miles (42,398 km). The team generally traveled east to west, around the northern-Pacific Rim, through to South Asia and Europe and back to the United States. Airmen Lowell H. Smith and Leslie P. Arnold, and Erik H. Nelson and John Harding Jr. made the trip in two single-engined open-cockpit Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) configured as floatplanes for most of the journey. Four more flyers in two additional DWC began the journey but their aircraft crashed or were forced down. All airmen survived.

The aircraft shown here, Chicago, led the first round the world flight in 1924.

In 1930, Australian Charles Kingsford Smith with a team of three others completed the first circumnavigation of the world by flight traversing both hemispheres, by including the first trans-Pacific flight, from the US to Australia, two years earlier, in 1928. Kingsford Smith flew a Fokker F.VIIb/3m trimotor monoplane in a series of non-continuous legs over almost two years.

U.S. preparation for circumnavigation attempt Edit

In the early 1920s several countries were vying to be the first to fly around the world. The British had made one unsuccessful around-the-world air flight attempt in 1922. The following year, a French team had tried; the Italians, Portuguese, and British also announced plans for a world-circling flight.[1] In the spring of 1923, the U.S. Army Air Service became interested in having a squadron of military aircraft undertake a round-the-world flight. It assigned a group of officers in the War Department planning group, formed as the World Flight Committee,[2]: 6  the job of finding a suitable aircraft and planning the mission.[3] This high-level Army enterprise, under the ultimate command of General Patrick, would ultimately have the additional support of the Navy, Diplomatic Corps, Bureau of Fisheries and Coast Guard Services.[2]: 4 

The War Department instructed the Air Service to look at both the Fokker T-2 transport and the Davis-Douglas Cloudster to see if either would be suitable and to acquire examples for testing.[N 1] Although deemed satisfactory, the planning group considered other U.S. Air Service military aircraft both in service and production, with a view that a dedicated design that could be fitted with interchangeable landing gear, wheeled and pontoons for water landings, would be preferable.[5]

When the head of Davis-Douglas, Donald Douglas, was asked for information on the Davis-Douglas Cloudster, he instead submitted data on a modified DT-2,[6] a torpedo bomber that Douglas had built for the U.S. Navy in 1921 and 1922. The DT-2 had proven to be a sturdy aircraft that could accommodate interchangeable wheeled and pontoon landing gear. Since the aircraft was an existing model, Douglas stated that a new aircraft, which he named the Douglas World Cruiser (DWC), could be delivered within 45 days after a contract was awarded. The Air Service agreed and sent Lieutenant Erik Henning Nelson (1888–1970), a member of the planning group, to California to work out the details with Douglas. [N 2][1]

Douglas, assisted by Jack Northrop,[8] began to modify a DT-2 to suit the circumnavigation requirements.[5] The main modification involved its fuel capacity.[9] All the internal bomb carrying structures were removed with additional fuel tanks added to the wings and fuselage fuel tanks enlarged in the aircraft. The total fuel capacity went from 115 gallons (435 liters) to 644 gallons (2,438 liters).[5]

Lt. Nelson took the Douglas proposal to Washington where Major General Mason M. Patrick, Chief of the Air Service, approved it on 1 August 1923. The War Department awarded an initial contract to Douglas for the construction of a single prototype.[10] The prototype met all expectations, and a contract was awarded for four more production aircraft and spare parts.[11] The last DWC was delivered on 11 March 1924. The spare parts included 15 extra Liberty engines, 14 extra sets of pontoons, and enough replacement airframe parts for two more aircraft.[10] These spare parts were sent ahead to locations along the route around the world the aircraft planned to follow.[12]

The aircraft were equipped with no radios[2]: 253 [13] nor avionics of any sort, leaving their crew to rely entirely on their dead reckoning skills to navigate throughout the venture.

Douglas World Cruiser aircraft and crew Edit

 
Pilots of the 1924 Round The World Flight
  • Seattle (No. 1): Maj. Frederick L. Martin (1882–1956), pilot and flight commander, and SSgt. Alva L. Harvey (1900–1992), flight mechanic (failed to circumnavigate)
  • Chicago (No. 2): Lt. Lowell H. Smith (1892–1945), pilot, subsequent flight commander, and 1st Lt. Leslie P. Arnold (1893–1961), co-pilot
  • Boston (No. 3)/Boston II (prototype): 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (1897–1991), pilot, and SSgt. Henry H. Ogden (1900–1986), flight mechanic (failed to circumnavigate)
  • New Orleans (No. 4): Lt. Erik H. Nelson (1888–1970), pilot, and Lt. John Harding Jr. (1896–1968), co-pilot[6][2]: 43 

The pilots trained in meteorology and navigation at Langley Field in Virginia, where they also practiced in the prototype. From February to March 1924, the crews practiced on the production aircraft at the Douglas facility in Santa Monica and in San Diego.[2]: 10–12 

Team circumnavigation Edit

Four aircraft, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans, left Clover Field, Santa Monica, California, on 17 March 1924, for Sand Point in Seattle, Washington, the official start of the journey.[2]: 13 [14] The individual aircraft were formally christened with waters from their namesake cities, prior to departure from Seattle where Boeing Company technicians configured the aircraft for the long over-water portion of the flight, by exchanging wheels for pontoon floats.[15]

 
Major Martin and Sergeant Harvey at Port Moller after crash of the Seattle

On 6 April 1924,[16] just 13 days after the British, under Stuart-MacLaren, set off from England in the opposite direction,[17] they left Seattle for Alaska. Shortly after departing Prince Rupert Island on 15 April, the lead aircraft Seattle, flown by Martin with Harvey (the only fully qualified mechanic in the flight), blew a 3 inches (8 cm) hole in its crankcase and was forced to land on Portage Bay.[2]: 72  A replacement engine having been provided, the crew resumed their journey on 25 April,[2]: 73  in an attempt to catch up with the other three aircraft awaiting in Dutch Harbor[2]: 78–9  but which ended in failure on 30 April when the Seattle crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula. It was destroyed in the crash. The crew survived six harrowing days in the elements before finding shelter in an unoccupied cabin on Moller Bay and made it to a cannery four days later.[2]: 86–91 [18]

The three remaining aircraft continued, with Chicago, flown by Smith and Arnold, assuming the lead. [N 3] Tracing the Aleutian Islands, the flight traveled across the North Pacific, landing in the Soviet Union notwithstanding the lack of entry permission.[5] The Aleuts of Atka applied the term "thunder-bird" from their mythology to the Cruisers.[2]: 100 

On 25 May, whilst in Tokyo, the team received a cable reporting "MacLaren crashed at Akyab [Burma]. Plane completely wrecked. Continuance of flight doubtful." They responded by arranging delivery of a spare plane from Tokyo to Akyab (Sittwe) on the USS John Paul Jones, transshipped in Hong Kong onto the USS William B Preston, enabling the British to continue in their attempt to be first,[2]: 139–41  as the Portuguese and Argentinians also pressed on.[2]: 142 

The aircraft continued relatively uneventfully via Korea and down the coast of China to French Indochina (now Vietnam).

After leaving Haiphong in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Chicago's engine broke a connecting rod and it was forced to land in a lagoon near Huế. The aircraft was considered a novelty in this region of the world and missionary priests supplied the pilots with food and wine while locals climbed aboard its pontoons. The other flyers, who had continued on to Tourane (Da Nang), searched for the Chicago by boat and found the crew sitting on the wing in the early morning hours. Three paddle-powered sampans with local crews towed the aircraft for 10 hours, and 25 miles (40 km), to Huế, where the engine was replaced with a spare urgently shipped up from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City):[2]: 167–74  "[T]he fastest – and undoubtedly the first – engine change that had ever been made in Indochina."[19]

The flight continued through Thailand and on to Burma where they came within earshot of MacLaren during a torrential downpour east of Akyab, MacLaren having just resumed his attempt in the aircraft delivered by the Americans and sheltering on the surface at the time. Visual contact was not made and the Americans were unaware of their proximity to MacLaren.[2]: 190 

After carrying out the major operation of exchanging the Cruisers' floats for wheeled undercarriage at Calcutta, misfortune struck the Chicago crew on the evening of 29 June when Smith, in the dark after dinner, slipped and broke a rib. He nevertheless insisted on continuing without delaying the mission.[20][2]: 194  All three aircraft were fitted with new engines in Karachi, the New Orleans having suffered a catastrophic engine failure just short of that city and limped in on intermittent power.[2]: 207–9 

They then proceeded into the Middle East and then Europe.[7]

The flight arrived in Paris on Bastille Day, 14 July. From Paris the aircraft flew to London and on to the north of England in order to prepare for the Atlantic Ocean crossing by re-installing pontoons and changing engines.[15][2]: 247 

 
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge inspected the planes when they landed in Washington, D.C., toward the end of the tour in September 1924

On 3 August 1924, en route from the Orkney Islands to Iceland, an oil pump failure forced the Boston down onto an uninviting sea less than halfway to the Faroes. The accompanying Chicago flew on to the Faroes where it dropped a note onto the supporting U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Richmond about the troubled aircraft.[19] The crew having been rescued unhurt, the Boston, then on tow, capsized and sank shortly before reaching the Faroes.[2]: 255–63  The Chicago and New Orleans had flown on to Hornafjörður, Iceland, the most northerly point of the circumnavigation (65 deg N).

After a long stay in Reykjavik, Iceland, where they fortuitously met Italian Antonio Locatelli and his crew, also in the course of the same circumnavigation attempt, and there accompanied by five navy vessels and their 2,500 seaman, the Chicago, with Smith and Arnold still in the lead, and the New Orleans, with Nelson and Harding, continued on for Fredricksdal, Greenland.[2]: 266  This was to be the longest leg of the entire journey, with those five vessels strung along the route.[2]: 272  New engines were installed on arrival at the second stop in Greenland, Ivigtut.[2]: 283 

On 31 August, they reached Labrador, Canada,[21][2]: 287  a fuel-pump failure in the Chicago having been overcome by four hours of hand pumping by Arnold.[2]: 28  After the original prototype, now named Boston II, arrived[10] in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the original Boston crew of Wade and Ogden were able to join the other two aircraft to fly on to Boston (where pontoon floats were exchanged for wheels again)[2]: 300  and Washington DC.[2]: 293 [22] After a hero's welcome in the capital, the three Douglas World Cruisers flew to the West Coast, on a multi-city tour, stopping, on 22 September, at Rockwell Field, San Diego, for new engines[2]: 311  and then arrived in Santa Monica to a welcoming crowd of at least 100,000 people.[2]: 312  Their final landing in Seattle was on 28 September 1924.[16]

The trip had taken 363 flying hours 7 minutes, over 175 calendar days, and covered 26,345 miles (42,398 km),[2]: 315 [1] succeeding where the British, Portuguese,[23] French, Italians and Argentinians failed. The Douglas Aircraft Company adopted the motto, "First Around the World – First the World Around".[N 4] The American team had greatly increased their chances of success by using several aircraft and pre-positioning large caches of fuel, spare parts, and other support equipment along the route. They often had several US Navy destroyers deployed in support.[2]: 149, 154  At prearranged way points, the World Flight's aircraft had their engines changed five times and new wings fitted twice.[7]

Itinerary Edit

 
Itinerary of the first aerial circumnavigation

The flight traveled from east to west, beginning in Seattle, Washington, in April 1924 and returning to its start point in September. It flew northwest to Alaska; across northern Pacific islands to Japan and then south Asia; across to Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. The route's most southerly point was Saigon in Vietnam[2]: 175  (10° N), while the northernmost stop was in Reykjavík, Iceland at 64°08' N. The refueling stops were:[2]: xxii 

Subsequent disposition of equipment and crew Edit

At the request of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. War Department transferred ownership of the Chicago to the museum for display. It made its last flight from Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., on 25 September 1925. It was almost immediately put on display in the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building. In 1974, the Chicago was restored under the direction of Walter Roderick,[27] and transferred to the new National Air and Space Museum building for display in their Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight exhibition gallery.[1]

Beginning in 1957, the New Orleans was displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.[28] The aircraft was on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and was returned in 2005.[29] Since February 2012, the New Orleans is a part of the exhibits at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California.[30]

The wreckage of the Seattle was recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.[31] The original Boston sank in the North Atlantic, and it is thought that the only surviving piece of the original prototype, the Boston II, is the aircraft data plate, now in a private collection, and a scrap of fuselage skin, in the collection of the Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum in Poplar Grove, Illinois.[32]

All six airmen were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by vote of the United States Congress, the first time such award had been made for acts not in the course of war, and they were excused from the prohibition against accepting awards from foreign countries.[2]: 325 

The best in flight Mackay Trophy for 1924 was awarded to Smith, Arnold, Wade, Nelson and Ogden.[33] Later, Martin was in command of Army aviation units in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His mechanic Harvey was commissioned and commanded heavy bomb groups during World War II. Nelson rose to the rank of colonel and became one of General Henry Arnold's chief trouble-shooters on the development and operational deployment of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

  •  

    No.1 "Seattle", crashed/destroyed, crew survived

  •  

    No.2 Chicago at the National Air and Space Museum

  •  

    No.3 "Boston" August 3, 1924; sunk/lost at sea, crew survived

  •  

    No.4 New Orleans being installed at the Museum of Flying, 2012.

Cross-equator circumnavigation Edit

 
Charles Kingsford Smith
 
The Southern Cross at a RAAF base near Canberra in 1943.

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world that involved the crossing of the equator twice was made using a single aircraft, the Southern Cross, a Fokker F.VIIb/3m trimotor monoplane[34] crewed by Charles Kingsford Smith (lead pilot), Charles Ulm (relief pilot), James Warner (radio operator), and Harry Lyon (navigator and engineer).[34]

After completing the first trans-Pacific crossing on 9 June 1928, flying from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia, Kingsford Smith and Ulm spent several months making other long-distance flights across Australia and to New Zealand. They decided to use their trans-Pacific flight as the first leg of a globe-circling flight.[35] They flew the Southern Cross to England in June 1929, then across the Atlantic and North America, returning, in 1930, to Oakland where their trans-Pacific flight had begun.[36]

Before Kingsford Smith's death in 1935, he donated the Southern Cross to the Commonwealth of Australia, for display in a museum.[37] The aircraft is preserved in a special glass 'hangar' memorial on Airport Drive, near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport in Queensland, Australia.

See also Edit

References Edit

Notes Edit

  1. ^ During 1922–1923, the Fokker T-2 was used by the U.S. Army to set a series of long distance and endurance records.[4]
  2. ^ Lt. Nelson was eventually assigned to the World Flight as the pilot of DWC #4.[7]
  3. ^ One of the Army's best aviators, Smith was named to pilot the Chicago and was permitted to choose his own co-pilot, Arnold, who would double as a flight mechanic.[16]
  4. ^ The Douglas logo evolved into an aircraft, a missile, and a globe and was adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation following the merger of Douglas and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967, and then became the basis of the logo of the Boeing Company following its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997.[24][25][26]

Citations Edit

  1. ^ a b c d "Collections: Douglas World Cruiser Chicago – Long Description." National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Thomas, Lowell (1925). The First World Flight. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  3. ^ Swanborough and Bowers 1963, p. 548.
  4. ^ "Fine American Duration Flight." Flight, 19 October 1922, p. 615.
  5. ^ a b c d Rumerman, Judy. "The Douglas World Cruiser – Around the World in 175 Days." U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  6. ^ a b "First to fly around the world." Did You Know.org. Retrieved: 7 July 2012 .
  7. ^ a b c Mackworth-Praed 1990, p. 235.
  8. ^ Boyne 1982, p. 80.
  9. ^ Yenne 2003, p. 48.
  10. ^ a b c "Douglas DT-2 World Cruiser." Aviation Central.com. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  11. ^ Francillon 1979, p. 75.
  12. ^ Bryan 1979, p. 122.
  13. ^ communicating by message bag and hand signals
  14. ^ Stoff 2000, p. 21.
  15. ^ a b "Douglas World Cruiser Transport." 25 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Boeing. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  16. ^ a b c National Museum of the United States Air Force, 8 July 2009. Retrieved: 14 July 2017.
  17. ^ "The Race to Fly First Around the World". Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  18. ^ "South Hangar: Douglas World Cruiser 'Seattle'." 22 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  19. ^ a b Roberts, Chuck. Airman (subscription required), 1 July 2003. Retrieved: 20 July 2012.
  20. ^ Wendell 1999/2000, pp. 339–372, 356–366.
  21. ^ Haber 1995, pp. 72–73.
  22. ^ "Fliers At Seattle End World Flight of 27,000 Miles." The New York Times, 28 September 1924, p. 1. Retrieved: 29 July 2012.
  23. ^ d’Assumpção, H A (17 April 2018). "From Portugal to Macau". Club Lusitano. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  24. ^ , Boeing Trademark Management Group, Boeing, archived from the original on 21 June 2012, retrieved 5 July 2012
  25. ^ Boeing. "From Bow-Wing to Boeing". YouTube. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2021.
  26. ^ , McDonnell Douglas, archived from the original on 5 June 1997, retrieved 29 November 2020
  27. ^ Boyne 1982, p. 18.
  28. ^ Ogden 1986, p. 168.
  29. ^ "Exhibits." Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Retrieved: 5 July 2012.
  30. ^ "Exhibits & Features." 11 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Museum of Flying, Santa Monica Airport, 2012. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  31. ^ "South Hangar: Douglas World Cruiser 'Seattle'." 22 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. Retrieved: 5 July 2012.
  32. ^ "Featured Artifact: Fabric from the Boston II Douglas World Cruiser." 1 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum. Retrieved: 5 July 2012.
  33. ^ "Mackay 1920-1929 Recipients - NAA: National Aeronautic Association". naa.aero.
  34. ^ a b Sherman, Stephen. "Charles Kingsford Smith: First to Fly Across the Pacific." acepilots.com, 16 April 2012. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.
  35. ^ Cross 1972, p. 71.
  36. ^ Cross 1972, p. 74.
  37. ^ "RAAF Fokker F.VIIB Southern Cross VH-USU." 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine ADF Aircraft Serials. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

Bibliography Edit

  • Boyne, Walter J. The Aircraft Treasures Of Silver Hill: The Behind-The-Scenes Workshop Of The National Air And Space Museum. New York: Rawson Associates, 1982. ISBN 0-89256-216-1.
  • Bryan, Courtlandt Dixon Barnes. The National Air and Space Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1979. ISBN 978-0-810-98126-3.
  • Cross, Roy. Great Aircraft and Their Pilots. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1972. ISBN 978-0-82120-465-8.
  • Donald, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997. ISBN 1-85605-375-X.
  • Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Volume I. London: Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-87021-428-4.
  • Haber, Barbara Angle. The National Air and Space Museum. London: Bison Group, 1995. ISBN 1-85841-088-6.
  • Mackworth-Praed, Ben. Aviation: The Pioneer Years. London: Studio Editions, 1990. ISBN 1-85170-349-7.
  • Ogden, Bob. Great Aircraft Collections of the World. New York: Gallery Books, 1986. ISBN 1-85627-012-2.
  • Stoff, Joshua. Transatlantic Flight: A Picture History, 1873–1939. Mineoloa, New York: Dover publications, Inc., 2000. ISBN 0-486-40727-6.
  • Swanborough, F. Gordon and Peter M. Bowers. United States Military Aircraft since 1909. London: Putnam, 1963.
  • Wendell, David V. "Getting Its Wings: Chicago as the Cradle of Aviation in America." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume 92, No. 4, Winter 1999/2000, pp. 339–372.
  • Will, Gavin. The Big Hop: The North Atlantic Air Race. Portugal Cove-St.Phillips, Newfoundland: Boulder Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9730271-8-1.
  • Yenne, Bill. Seaplanes & Flying Boats: A Timeless Collection from Aviation's Golden Age. New York: BCL Press, 2003. ISBN 1-932302-03-4.

External links Edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1924 Round The World Flight.
  • The Douglas World Cruiser – Around the World in 175 Days
  • The National Archives: Magellans of the Sky
  • Santa Monica Museum of Flying
  • Chasing the Sun: Douglas Aircraft, PBS documentary

October 28, 2023
first, aerial, circumnavigation, first, aerial, circumnavigation, world, completed, 1924, four, aviators, from, eight, team, united, states, army, service, precursor, united, states, force, journey, covered, over, miles, team, generally, traveled, east, west, . The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was completed in 1924 by four aviators from an eight man team of the United States Army Air Service the precursor of the United States Air Force The 175 day journey covered over 26 345 miles 42 398 km The team generally traveled east to west around the northern Pacific Rim through to South Asia and Europe and back to the United States Airmen Lowell H Smith and Leslie P Arnold and Erik H Nelson and John Harding Jr made the trip in two single engined open cockpit Douglas World Cruisers DWC configured as floatplanes for most of the journey Four more flyers in two additional DWC began the journey but their aircraft crashed or were forced down All airmen survived The aircraft shown here Chicago led the first round the world flight in 1924 In 1930 Australian Charles Kingsford Smith with a team of three others completed the first circumnavigation of the world by flight traversing both hemispheres by including the first trans Pacific flight from the US to Australia two years earlier in 1928 Kingsford Smith flew a Fokker F VIIb 3m trimotor monoplane in a series of non continuous legs over almost two years Contents 1 U S preparation for circumnavigation attempt 2 Douglas World Cruiser aircraft and crew 3 Team circumnavigation 4 Itinerary 5 Subsequent disposition of equipment and crew 6 Cross equator circumnavigation 7 See also 8 References 8 1 Notes 8 2 Citations 8 3 Bibliography 9 External linksU S preparation for circumnavigation attempt EditIn the early 1920s several countries were vying to be the first to fly around the world The British had made one unsuccessful around the world air flight attempt in 1922 The following year a French team had tried the Italians Portuguese and British also announced plans for a world circling flight 1 In the spring of 1923 the U S Army Air Service became interested in having a squadron of military aircraft undertake a round the world flight It assigned a group of officers in the War Department planning group formed as the World Flight Committee 2 6 the job of finding a suitable aircraft and planning the mission 3 This high level Army enterprise under the ultimate command of General Patrick would ultimately have the additional support of the Navy Diplomatic Corps Bureau of Fisheries and Coast Guard Services 2 4 The War Department instructed the Air Service to look at both the Fokker T 2 transport and the Davis Douglas Cloudster to see if either would be suitable and to acquire examples for testing N 1 Although deemed satisfactory the planning group considered other U S Air Service military aircraft both in service and production with a view that a dedicated design that could be fitted with interchangeable landing gear wheeled and pontoons for water landings would be preferable 5 When the head of Davis Douglas Donald Douglas was asked for information on the Davis Douglas Cloudster he instead submitted data on a modified DT 2 6 a torpedo bomber that Douglas had built for the U S Navy in 1921 and 1922 The DT 2 had proven to be a sturdy aircraft that could accommodate interchangeable wheeled and pontoon landing gear Since the aircraft was an existing model Douglas stated that a new aircraft which he named the Douglas World Cruiser DWC could be delivered within 45 days after a contract was awarded The Air Service agreed and sent Lieutenant Erik Henning Nelson 1888 1970 a member of the planning group to California to work out the details with Douglas N 2 1 Douglas assisted by Jack Northrop 8 began to modify a DT 2 to suit the circumnavigation requirements 5 The main modification involved its fuel capacity 9 All the internal bomb carrying structures were removed with additional fuel tanks added to the wings and fuselage fuel tanks enlarged in the aircraft The total fuel capacity went from 115 gallons 435 liters to 644 gallons 2 438 liters 5 Lt Nelson took the Douglas proposal to Washington where Major General Mason M Patrick Chief of the Air Service approved it on 1 August 1923 The War Department awarded an initial contract to Douglas for the construction of a single prototype 10 The prototype met all expectations and a contract was awarded for four more production aircraft and spare parts 11 The last DWC was delivered on 11 March 1924 The spare parts included 15 extra Liberty engines 14 extra sets of pontoons and enough replacement airframe parts for two more aircraft 10 These spare parts were sent ahead to locations along the route around the world the aircraft planned to follow 12 The aircraft were equipped with no radios 2 253 13 nor avionics of any sort leaving their crew to rely entirely on their dead reckoning skills to navigate throughout the venture Douglas World Cruiser aircraft and crew Edit nbsp Pilots of the 1924 Round The World FlightSeattle No 1 Maj Frederick L Martin 1882 1956 pilot and flight commander and SSgt Alva L Harvey 1900 1992 flight mechanic failed to circumnavigate Chicago No 2 Lt Lowell H Smith 1892 1945 pilot subsequent flight commander and 1st Lt Leslie P Arnold 1893 1961 co pilot Boston No 3 Boston II prototype 1st Lt Leigh P Wade 1897 1991 pilot and SSgt Henry H Ogden 1900 1986 flight mechanic failed to circumnavigate New Orleans No 4 Lt Erik H Nelson 1888 1970 pilot and Lt John Harding Jr 1896 1968 co pilot 6 2 43 The pilots trained in meteorology and navigation at Langley Field in Virginia where they also practiced in the prototype From February to March 1924 the crews practiced on the production aircraft at the Douglas facility in Santa Monica and in San Diego 2 10 12 Team circumnavigation EditFour aircraft Seattle Chicago Boston and New Orleans left Clover Field Santa Monica California on 17 March 1924 for Sand Point in Seattle Washington the official start of the journey 2 13 14 The individual aircraft were formally christened with waters from their namesake cities prior to departure from Seattle where Boeing Company technicians configured the aircraft for the long over water portion of the flight by exchanging wheels for pontoon floats 15 nbsp Major Martin and Sergeant Harvey at Port Moller after crash of the SeattleOn 6 April 1924 16 just 13 days after the British under Stuart MacLaren set off from England in the opposite direction 17 they left Seattle for Alaska Shortly after departing Prince Rupert Island on 15 April the lead aircraft Seattle flown by Martin with Harvey the only fully qualified mechanic in the flight blew a 3 inches 8 cm hole in its crankcase and was forced to land on Portage Bay 2 72 A replacement engine having been provided the crew resumed their journey on 25 April 2 73 in an attempt to catch up with the other three aircraft awaiting in Dutch Harbor 2 78 9 but which ended in failure on 30 April when the Seattle crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula It was destroyed in the crash The crew survived six harrowing days in the elements before finding shelter in an unoccupied cabin on Moller Bay and made it to a cannery four days later 2 86 91 18 The three remaining aircraft continued with Chicago flown by Smith and Arnold assuming the lead N 3 Tracing the Aleutian Islands the flight traveled across the North Pacific landing in the Soviet Union notwithstanding the lack of entry permission 5 The Aleuts of Atka applied the term thunder bird from their mythology to the Cruisers 2 100 On 25 May whilst in Tokyo the team received a cable reporting MacLaren crashed at Akyab Burma Plane completely wrecked Continuance of flight doubtful They responded by arranging delivery of a spare plane from Tokyo to Akyab Sittwe on the USS John Paul Jones transshipped in Hong Kong onto the USS William B Preston enabling the British to continue in their attempt to be first 2 139 41 as the Portuguese and Argentinians also pressed on 2 142 The aircraft continued relatively uneventfully via Korea and down the coast of China to French Indochina now Vietnam After leaving Haiphong in the Gulf of Tonkin the Chicago s engine broke a connecting rod and it was forced to land in a lagoon near Huế The aircraft was considered a novelty in this region of the world and missionary priests supplied the pilots with food and wine while locals climbed aboard its pontoons The other flyers who had continued on to Tourane Da Nang searched for the Chicago by boat and found the crew sitting on the wing in the early morning hours Three paddle powered sampans with local crews towed the aircraft for 10 hours and 25 miles 40 km to Huế where the engine was replaced with a spare urgently shipped up from Saigon Ho Chi Minh City 2 167 74 T he fastest and undoubtedly the first engine change that had ever been made in Indochina 19 The flight continued through Thailand and on to Burma where they came within earshot of MacLaren during a torrential downpour east of Akyab MacLaren having just resumed his attempt in the aircraft delivered by the Americans and sheltering on the surface at the time Visual contact was not made and the Americans were unaware of their proximity to MacLaren 2 190 After carrying out the major operation of exchanging the Cruisers floats for wheeled undercarriage at Calcutta misfortune struck the Chicago crew on the evening of 29 June when Smith in the dark after dinner slipped and broke a rib He nevertheless insisted on continuing without delaying the mission 20 2 194 All three aircraft were fitted with new engines in Karachi the New Orleans having suffered a catastrophic engine failure just short of that city and limped in on intermittent power 2 207 9 They then proceeded into the Middle East and then Europe 7 The flight arrived in Paris on Bastille Day 14 July From Paris the aircraft flew to London and on to the north of England in order to prepare for the Atlantic Ocean crossing by re installing pontoons and changing engines 15 2 247 nbsp U S President Calvin Coolidge inspected the planes when they landed in Washington D C toward the end of the tour in September 1924On 3 August 1924 en route from the Orkney Islands to Iceland an oil pump failure forced the Boston down onto an uninviting sea less than halfway to the Faroes The accompanying Chicago flew on to the Faroes where it dropped a note onto the supporting U S Navy light cruiser USS Richmond about the troubled aircraft 19 The crew having been rescued unhurt the Boston then on tow capsized and sank shortly before reaching the Faroes 2 255 63 The Chicago and New Orleans had flown on to Hornafjordur Iceland the most northerly point of the circumnavigation 65 deg N After a long stay in Reykjavik Iceland where they fortuitously met Italian Antonio Locatelli and his crew also in the course of the same circumnavigation attempt and there accompanied by five navy vessels and their 2 500 seaman the Chicago with Smith and Arnold still in the lead and the New Orleans with Nelson and Harding continued on for Fredricksdal Greenland 2 266 This was to be the longest leg of the entire journey with those five vessels strung along the route 2 272 New engines were installed on arrival at the second stop in Greenland Ivigtut 2 283 On 31 August they reached Labrador Canada 21 2 287 a fuel pump failure in the Chicago having been overcome by four hours of hand pumping by Arnold 2 28 After the original prototype now named Boston II arrived 10 in Pictou Nova Scotia the original Boston crew of Wade and Ogden were able to join the other two aircraft to fly on to Boston where pontoon floats were exchanged for wheels again 2 300 and Washington DC 2 293 22 After a hero s welcome in the capital the three Douglas World Cruisers flew to the West Coast on a multi city tour stopping on 22 September at Rockwell Field San Diego for new engines 2 311 and then arrived in Santa Monica to a welcoming crowd of at least 100 000 people 2 312 Their final landing in Seattle was on 28 September 1924 16 The trip had taken 363 flying hours 7 minutes over 175 calendar days and covered 26 345 miles 42 398 km 2 315 1 succeeding where the British Portuguese 23 French Italians and Argentinians failed The Douglas Aircraft Company adopted the motto First Around the World First the World Around N 4 The American team had greatly increased their chances of success by using several aircraft and pre positioning large caches of fuel spare parts and other support equipment along the route They often had several US Navy destroyers deployed in support 2 149 154 At prearranged way points the World Flight s aircraft had their engines changed five times and new wings fitted twice 7 Itinerary Edit nbsp Itinerary of the first aerial circumnavigationThe flight traveled from east to west beginning in Seattle Washington in April 1924 and returning to its start point in September It flew northwest to Alaska across northern Pacific islands to Japan and then south Asia across to Europe and the Atlantic Ocean The route s most southerly point was Saigon in Vietnam 2 175 10 N while the northernmost stop was in Reykjavik Iceland at 64 08 N The refueling stops were 2 xxii United States Sand Point Lake Washington Seattle Washington 6 April 1924 Canada Seal Cove Prince Rupert British Columbia Alaska Sitka Seward and Chignik Aleutian Islands Dutch Harbor Atka and Attu Soviet Union Bering Island Japan Paramushiru Hitokappu Minato Lake Kasumigaura Kushimoto and Kagoshima China Shanghai Tchinkoen Qingchuan Bay Amoy Xiamen Hong Kong French Indochina Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin Haiphong Tourane Da Nang Huế Chicago only and Saigon Ho Chi Minh City Thailand Bangkok Raj Burma Tavoy Dawei Rangoon and Akyab Sittwe Raj India Chittagong Calcutta Allahabad Ambala Multan Karachi Persia Chabahar Bandar Abbas and Bushehr Iraq Baghdad Syria Aleppo Turkey Istanbul Romania Bucharest Hungary Budapest Austria Vienna France Strasbourg and Paris United Kingdom Croydon London Brough Yorkshire Scapa Flow Kirkwall Orkney Iceland Hornafjordur and Reykjavik Greenland Fredricksdal and Ivigtut Ivittuut Newfoundland and Labrador Icy Tickle and Hawkes Bay Canada Pictou Harbor Nova Scotia United States Casco Bay Maine Boston Massachusetts Mitchell Field New York Bolling Field Washington D C Across the U S 14 cities in nine states and Seattle Washington 28 September 1924 2 Subsequent disposition of equipment and crew EditAt the request of the Smithsonian Institution the U S War Department transferred ownership of the Chicago to the museum for display It made its last flight from Dayton Ohio to Washington D C on 25 September 1925 It was almost immediately put on display in the Smithsonian s Arts and Industries Building In 1974 the Chicago was restored under the direction of Walter Roderick 27 and transferred to the new National Air and Space Museum building for display in their Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight exhibition gallery 1 Beginning in 1957 the New Orleans was displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton 28 The aircraft was on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and was returned in 2005 29 Since February 2012 the New Orleans is a part of the exhibits at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica California 30 The wreckage of the Seattle was recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum 31 The original Boston sank in the North Atlantic and it is thought that the only surviving piece of the original prototype the Boston II is the aircraft data plate now in a private collection and a scrap of fuselage skin in the collection of the Vintage Wings amp Wheels Museum in Poplar Grove Illinois 32 All six airmen were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by vote of the United States Congress the first time such award had been made for acts not in the course of war and they were excused from the prohibition against accepting awards from foreign countries 2 325 The best in flight Mackay Trophy for 1924 was awarded to Smith Arnold Wade Nelson and Ogden 33 Later Martin was in command of Army aviation units in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor His mechanic Harvey was commissioned and commanded heavy bomb groups during World War II Nelson rose to the rank of colonel and became one of General Henry Arnold s chief trouble shooters on the development and operational deployment of the Boeing B 29 Superfortress nbsp No 1 Seattle crashed destroyed crew survived nbsp No 2 Chicago at the National Air and Space Museum nbsp No 3 Boston August 3 1924 sunk lost at sea crew survived nbsp No 4 New Orleans being installed at the Museum of Flying 2012 Cross equator circumnavigation Edit nbsp Charles Kingsford Smith nbsp The Southern Cross at a RAAF base near Canberra in 1943 The first aerial circumnavigation of the world that involved the crossing of the equator twice was made using a single aircraft the Southern Cross a Fokker F VIIb 3m trimotor monoplane 34 crewed by Charles Kingsford Smith lead pilot Charles Ulm relief pilot James Warner radio operator and Harry Lyon navigator and engineer 34 After completing the first trans Pacific crossing on 9 June 1928 flying from Oakland California to Brisbane Australia Kingsford Smith and Ulm spent several months making other long distance flights across Australia and to New Zealand They decided to use their trans Pacific flight as the first leg of a globe circling flight 35 They flew the Southern Cross to England in June 1929 then across the Atlantic and North America returning in 1930 to Oakland where their trans Pacific flight had begun 36 Before Kingsford Smith s death in 1935 he donated the Southern Cross to the Commonwealth of Australia for display in a museum 37 The aircraft is preserved in a special glass hangar memorial on Airport Drive near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport in Queensland Australia See also EditList of circumnavigations Aerial nbsp History portal nbsp World portalReferences EditNotes Edit During 1922 1923 the Fokker T 2 was used by the U S Army to set a series of long distance and endurance records 4 Lt Nelson was eventually assigned to the World Flight as the pilot of DWC 4 7 One of the Army s best aviators Smith was named to pilot the Chicago and was permitted to choose his own co pilot Arnold who would double as a flight mechanic 16 The Douglas logo evolved into an aircraft a missile and a globe and was adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation following the merger of Douglas and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967 and then became the basis of the logo of the Boeing Company following its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997 24 25 26 Citations Edit a b c d Collections Douglas World Cruiser Chicago Long Description National Air and Space Museum Retrieved 7 July 2012 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Thomas Lowell 1925 The First World Flight Boston amp New York Houghton Mifflin Company Swanborough and Bowers 1963 p 548 Fine American Duration Flight Flight 19 October 1922 p 615 a b c d Rumerman Judy The Douglas World Cruiser Around the World in 175 Days U S Centennial of Flight Commission 2003 Retrieved 7 July 2012 a b First to fly around the world Did You Know org Retrieved 7 July 2012 a b c Mackworth Praed 1990 p 235 Boyne 1982 p 80 Yenne 2003 p 48 a b c Douglas DT 2 World Cruiser Aviation Central com Retrieved 7 July 2012 Francillon 1979 p 75 Bryan 1979 p 122 communicating by message bag and hand signals Stoff 2000 p 21 a b Douglas World Cruiser Transport Archived 25 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Boeing Retrieved 7 July 2012 a b c First round the world flight National Museum of the United States Air Force 8 July 2009 Retrieved 14 July 2017 The Race to Fly First Around the World Retrieved 26 May 2019 South Hangar Douglas World Cruiser Seattle Archived 22 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum Retrieved 7 July 2012 a b Roberts Chuck Magellans of the sky lessons learned from the epic 1924 around the world flight are visible in today s Air Force but the memory of those who made it possible have faded with the years A Centennial of Flight Special Feature Airman subscription required 1 July 2003 Retrieved 20 July 2012 Wendell 1999 2000 pp 339 372 356 366 Haber 1995 pp 72 73 Fliers At Seattle End World Flight of 27 000 Miles The New York Times 28 September 1924 p 1 Retrieved 29 July 2012 d Assumpcao H A 17 April 2018 From Portugal to Macau Club Lusitano Retrieved 10 August 2019 Trademarks and Copyrights Boeing logo Boeing Trademark Management Group Boeing archived from the original on 21 June 2012 retrieved 5 July 2012 Boeing From Bow Wing to Boeing YouTube Archived from the original on 13 December 2021 Retrieved 31 January 2021 McDonnell Douglas Logo History McDonnell Douglas archived from the original on 5 June 1997 retrieved 29 November 2020 Boyne 1982 p 18 Ogden 1986 p 168 Exhibits Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Retrieved 5 July 2012 Exhibits amp Features Archived 11 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Museum of Flying Santa Monica Airport 2012 Retrieved 7 July 2012 South Hangar Douglas World Cruiser Seattle Archived 22 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum Retrieved 5 July 2012 Featured Artifact Fabric from the Boston II Douglas World Cruiser Archived 1 August 2012 at the Wayback Machine Vintage Wings amp Wheels Museum Retrieved 5 July 2012 Mackay 1920 1929 Recipients NAA National Aeronautic Association naa aero a b Sherman Stephen Charles Kingsford Smith First to Fly Across the Pacific acepilots com 16 April 2012 Retrieved 7 July 2012 Cross 1972 p 71 Cross 1972 p 74 RAAF Fokker F VIIB Southern Cross VH USU Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine ADF Aircraft Serials Retrieved 7 July 2012 Bibliography Edit Boyne Walter J The Aircraft Treasures Of Silver Hill The Behind The Scenes Workshop Of The National Air And Space Museum New York Rawson Associates 1982 ISBN 0 89256 216 1 Bryan Courtlandt Dixon Barnes The National Air and Space Museum New York Harry N Abrams Inc 1979 ISBN 978 0 810 98126 3 Cross Roy Great Aircraft and Their Pilots New York New York Graphic Society 1972 ISBN 978 0 82120 465 8 Donald David ed Encyclopedia of World Aircraft Etobicoke Ontario Prospero Books 1997 ISBN 1 85605 375 X Francillon Rene J McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920 Volume I London Putnam 1979 ISBN 0 87021 428 4 Haber Barbara Angle The National Air and Space Museum London Bison Group 1995 ISBN 1 85841 088 6 Mackworth Praed Ben Aviation The Pioneer Years London Studio Editions 1990 ISBN 1 85170 349 7 Ogden Bob Great Aircraft Collections of the World New York Gallery Books 1986 ISBN 1 85627 012 2 Stoff Joshua Transatlantic Flight A Picture History 1873 1939 Mineoloa New York Dover publications Inc 2000 ISBN 0 486 40727 6 Swanborough F Gordon and Peter M Bowers United States Military Aircraft since 1909 London Putnam 1963 Wendell David V Getting Its Wings Chicago as the Cradle of Aviation in America Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Volume 92 No 4 Winter 1999 2000 pp 339 372 Will Gavin The Big Hop The North Atlantic Air Race Portugal Cove St Phillips Newfoundland Boulder Publications 2008 ISBN 978 0 9730271 8 1 Yenne Bill Seaplanes amp Flying Boats A Timeless Collection from Aviation s Golden Age New York BCL Press 2003 ISBN 1 932302 03 4 External links Edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1924 Round The World Flight The Douglas World Cruiser Around the World in 175 Days The National Archives Magellans of the Sky USAF Museum World Flight Chronicle Santa Monica Museum of Flying Chasing the Sun Douglas Aircraft PBS documentary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title First aerial circumnavigation amp oldid 1175250597, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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