{"id":19633469,"date":"2026-09-03T11:47:45","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T09:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/douglas-world-cruisers-first-aerial-circumnavigation-1924\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:41:40","slug":"douglas-world-cruisers-first-aerial-circumnavigation-1924","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/douglas-world-cruisers-first-aerial-circumnavigation-1924\/","title":{"rendered":"Douglas World Cruisers: The First Flight Around the World, 1924"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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They had no radios. Their engines were surplus wartime Liberty V-12s. Their crews navigated by map, compass and coastline, and when they needed to cross an ocean they landed, swapped the wheels for floats, and carried on.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Two of them made it home 175 days later, and the United States became the first country to fly around the planet.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0;font-size:15px;line-height:1.8\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:600;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Operator:<\/strong> United States Army Air Service<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> four Douglas World Cruisers &mdash; <em>Seattle<\/em>, <em>Chicago<\/em>, <em>Boston<\/em>, <em>New Orleans<\/em><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Departed:<\/strong> 6 April 1924, Sand Point, Seattle. <strong>Returned:<\/strong> 28 September 1924<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Elapsed:<\/strong> 175 days; roughly 371 hours in the air<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Distance:<\/strong> around 26,000 to 27,500 miles, depending on the source<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Engine:<\/strong> one Liberty L-12 of about 400 to 420 hp<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Average speed:<\/strong> about 70 mph<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Finished:<\/strong> two of four &mdash; <em>Chicago<\/em> and <em>New Orleans<\/em><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Built for the job, out of a torpedo bomber<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The World Cruiser was a modified Douglas DT, a Navy torpedo bomber. The important change was fuel: capacity went from 115 US gallons to 644, spread across six tanks, with the plumbing worked out by a young Douglas engineer named Jack Northrop.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The other important feature was the undercarriage. Wheels and floats were interchangeable, so the same airframe could operate off a field in France and off the sea between Iceland and Greenland. They carried two sets of propellers as well &mdash; hard oak for water work, lighter walnut for land.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Army was blunt about why it was doing this at all.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Authority is requested to send a flight of four Army airplanes around the world ... to secure for the United States, the birthplace of aeronautics, the honor of being the first country to encircle the world entirely by air travel.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick<\/strong> &mdash; Chief of the U.S. Army Air Service, in his written request, 1923<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>It was a race. Britain, Italy, Portugal, France and Argentina all had crews attempting a circumnavigation in 1924. Every one of them failed. In a detail that says something about the era, when the British attempt under Stuart MacLaren lost its aircraft, the Americans shipped him a replacement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/three-douglas-world-cruisers-alaska-1924.jpg\" alt=\"Three Douglas World Cruisers on a beach in Alaska, 1924\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Three of the Cruisers on an Alaskan beach, New Orleans nearest the camera. The Alaska legs were flown in fog, and cost the expedition its flight commander. Photo: The Museum of Flight, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Losing Seattle, then Boston<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>On 30 April, three and a half weeks out, the flight commander Maj. Frederick Martin flew <em>Seattle<\/em> into a fogbound mountainside on the Alaska Peninsula. He and his mechanic Sgt. Alva Harvey survived the crash, then walked for ten days through snow, going snow-blind, before they were found on 10 May. Lt. Lowell Smith took over the expedition.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>On 3 August, between the Orkneys and the Faroes, <em>Boston<\/em> lost oil pressure and had to come down in the open sea. This is where the absence of radios becomes vivid: <em>Chicago<\/em> raised the alarm by dropping a handwritten note onto the deck of a Navy ship. Both crewmen were picked up by USS <em>Richmond<\/em>. The aircraft itself was damaged while being hoisted aboard and sank.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Lt. Leigh Wade and Sgt. Henry Ogden rejoined the flight in Nova Scotia in the spare airframe, christened <em>Boston II<\/em>, and finished the journey &mdash; though that aircraft had not itself gone round the world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/pilots-1924-round-the-world-flight.jpg\" alt=\"The pilots of the 1924 round-the-world flight\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The crews. Left to right: John Harding, Erik Nelson, Leigh Wade, Frederick Martin, Leslie Arnold, Lowell Smith and L.D. Schulze. Photo: United States Air Force, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Nobody expected it to work<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Leslie Arnold, who flew as co-pilot and mechanic aboard <em>Chicago<\/em>, recorded the local mood in his diary before departure.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The betting in Seattle is that not more than one plane will get around.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Leslie P. Arnold<\/strong> &mdash; Co-pilot and mechanic, Chicago, diary entry, 1924<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>He was nearly right. Two got around, and only because the crews spent the summer replacing engines in the open, patching fabric, and flying legs across the Pacific rim, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the North Atlantic on dead reckoning and nerve.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Asked afterwards whether he would do it again, Lowell Smith gave the only sensible answer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Not in a million years, unless ordered to do so.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Lt. Lowell H. Smith<\/strong> &mdash; Pilot of Chicago and commander of the flight from 30 April 1924<\/div><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Where they are now<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p><em>Chicago<\/em> is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington. <em>Seattle<\/em>&rsquo;s wreckage is at the Alaska Aviation Museum in Anchorage. <em>Boston<\/em> is on the bottom of the North Atlantic, and <em>Boston II<\/em> was scrapped.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p><em>New Orleans<\/em> survives, owned by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, but it has been disassembled in storage in Torrance, California since the museum that displayed it closed in 2002. One of the two aircraft that first flew around the world is currently in bits in a warehouse.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Period film of the flight:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rrfrxROPXNI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>More Army Air Service footage from the expedition:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e5xkWPICs0c\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>And a compiled account of the 1924 world flight:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BwujZh_QRrU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What were the Douglas World Cruisers?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Four open-cockpit biplanes built for the US Army Air Service to make the first flight around the world, in 1924. They were named Seattle, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans, and were derived from the Douglas DT Navy torpedo bomber.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How long did the first flight around the world take?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">175 days. The aircraft left Sand Point, Seattle on 6 April 1924 and returned on 28 September, covering somewhere between 26,000 and 27,500 miles depending on the source, with roughly 371 hours in the air at an average of about 70 mph.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many of the four aircraft finished?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Two. Chicago and New Orleans completed the circumnavigation. Seattle crashed into a fogbound Alaskan mountainside on 30 April; Boston came down in the sea between the Orkneys and the Faroes on 3 August. A spare airframe, christened Boston II, joined for the final legs but had not itself gone round the world.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did anyone die on the 1924 world flight?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. Seattle&rsquo;s crew survived the crash and walked for ten days through snow, going snow-blind, before being found. Boston&rsquo;s crew were picked up by USS Richmond after Chicago raised the alarm by dropping a handwritten note onto the deck of a Navy ship, because the aircraft had no radios.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did the aircraft cross oceans?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The wheels and floats were interchangeable, so the same airframe could operate off a field in France and off the sea between Iceland and Greenland. They also carried two sets of propellers: hard oak for water work and lighter walnut for land.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Were other countries racing them?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. Britain, Italy, Portugal, France and Argentina all attempted a circumnavigation in 1924, and every one failed. In a detail that says something about the era, when the British attempt lost its aircraft the Americans shipped him a replacement.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Where are the surviving aircraft now?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Chicago is at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Seattle&rsquo;s wreckage is at the Alaska Aviation Museum. New Orleans survives but has been disassembled in storage in Torrance, California since 2002. Boston is on the bottom of the North Atlantic.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What were the Douglas World Cruisers?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Four open-cockpit biplanes built for the US Army Air Service to make the first flight around the world, in 1924. They were named Seattle, Chicago, Boston and New Orleans, and were derived from the Douglas DT Navy torpedo bomber.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How long did the first flight around the world take?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"175 days. The aircraft left Sand Point, Seattle on 6 April 1924 and returned on 28 September, covering somewhere between 26,000 and 27,500 miles depending on the source, with roughly 371 hours in the air at an average of about 70 mph.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many of the four aircraft finished?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Two. Chicago and New Orleans completed the circumnavigation. Seattle crashed into a fogbound Alaskan mountainside on 30 April; Boston came down in the sea between the Orkneys and the Faroes on 3 August. A spare airframe, christened Boston II, joined for the final legs but had not itself gone round the world.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did anyone die on the 1924 world flight?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No. Seattle\u2019s crew survived the crash and walked for ten days through snow, going snow-blind, before being found. Boston\u2019s crew were picked up by USS Richmond after Chicago raised the alarm by dropping a handwritten note onto the deck of a Navy ship, because the aircraft had no radios.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How did the aircraft cross oceans?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The wheels and floats were interchangeable, so the same airframe could operate off a field in France and off the sea between Iceland and Greenland. They also carried two sets of propellers: hard oak for water work and lighter walnut for land.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Were other countries racing them?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. Britain, Italy, Portugal, France and Argentina all attempted a circumnavigation in 1924, and every one failed. In a detail that says something about the era, when the British attempt lost its aircraft the Americans shipped him a replacement.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Where are the surviving aircraft now?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Chicago is at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Seattle\u2019s wreckage is at the Alaska Aviation Museum. New Orleans survives but has been disassembled in storage in Torrance, California since 2002. Boston is on the bottom of the North Atlantic.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; National Museum of the United States Air Force; U.S. National Archives, Prologue, Summer 2010; Santa Monica Daily Press, April 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kingsford-smith-southern-cross-first-trans-pacific-flight-1928\/\">Charles Kingsford Smith: The First Flight Across the Pacific<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wiley-post-solo-round-the-world-winnie-mae-pressure-suit\/\">Wiley Post: The One-Eyed Pilot Who Flew Around the World Alone<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/amy-johnson-solo-england-australia-1930-jason\/\">Amy Johnson: The First Woman to Fly Solo to Australia<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four open-cockpit biplanes left Seattle in April 1924 with no radios and swappable floats. Two came home 175 days later, the first aircraft to circle the globe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":19633116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19633469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Douglas World Cruisers: First Flight Around the World | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Four open-cockpit biplanes left Seattle in 1924 with no radios and swappable floats. 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