THE FIRST FLIGHT
AROUND THE WORLD BEGAN IN SEATTLE, WA
The first circumnavigation of the globe by air was achieved in 1924 by a team of aviators from the U.S. Army Air Service. The trip lasted 175 days, covered approximately 27,000 miles, and included landings in 22 different countries.
MOF Archive Photos
COVER STORY
SEATTLE’S ROOTS IN AVIATION FIRSTS Reprinted from www.seattleworldcruiser.com | Visit them in booths # 603-604
In 1919, British aviators, John Alcock and Arthur Brown, first flew across the Atlantic. Later that same year, two Australians first flew from England to Australia. In 1923, two U.S. Army Air Service fliers made the first nonstop U.S. Transcontinental flight in a modified Fokker T-2. 1923 also saw several European flyers attempting to circumnavigate the globe by air. All were unsuccessful in their efforts. Undaunted by these failures, the U.S. Army Air Service was drawing up plans of their own to stake their claim as the first fliers to make the flight around the world. In a team effort that some historians have equated with the 1960s’ effort to put a man on the moon, Army planners in less than a year acquired suitable aircraft, researched an efficient but unorthodox route and devised a logistics network to support the flight. Working with the Douglas Airplane Company of Santa Monica, California, the Army purchased five highly modified Navy torpedo bombers capable of flying on wheels or pontoons -- a critical factor since they aircraft would switch between the two depending on which part of the world to be
covered -- over land or along coastlines. One served as a prototype with the remaining four expected to make the journey, each with a pilot and mechanic. Douglas dubbed the aircraft the Douglas World Cruiser (DWC). Unlike the other attempts which relied on prevailing winds to fly an easterly course, the Army chose the alternative, a westerly route. 15
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Four Douglas World Cruisers departed on floats from Lake Washington through the Aleutians to Japan. Floats were replaced with wheels in Calcutta, with a flight across India to England. A change, again, to floats, with the island-hop across the Atlantic Ocean to Boston. Wheels across the US, back to Seattle. This momentous trip took six months. On September 28,1924, two of the original four aircraft touched down in Washington to complete the first circumnavigation of the globe by aircraft.
