Howard Hughes, the Lockheed Fourteen Super Electra, and the Ninety-One Hours That Circled the World

On July 10, 1938, Howard Hughes lifted off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York in a heavily modified Lockheed 14 Super Electra and returned 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, and 10 seconds later - having circled the entire planet. His crew of four helped cut Wiley Post’s standing record from 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes to under four days. The flight’s deeper significance, though, was not the speed record itself: it was the systematic, crew-based approach that made the record possible.

Who Was Howard Hughes as a Pilot?

Most public memory of Howard Hughes centers on the troubled second half of his life. In 1938, that person did not yet exist.

Hughes was 32 years old that summer - sharp, methodical, and by credible measure one of the finest aviators alive. He had learned to fly young and pushed consistently from there. In January 1937, he flew a Lockheed 14 from Burbank, California to Newark, New Jersey in 7 hours and 28 minutes, beating the previous transcontinental record by more than three hours. New York gave him a ticker-tape parade for it.

He could fly. That was not in question.

The Record Hughes Was Chasing

Wiley Post had set the around-the-world record in 1933, flying solo in his Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae, in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes. Post flew over the top of the world with one functioning eye - he had lost his left eye in an oil field accident and wore a glass one ever after. That record had stood for five years and was genuinely remarkable.

Hughes was not going to approach it the way Post had.

How Hughes Prepared: The Planning Behind the Record

The around-the-world attempt was not a gamble. It was a project, built over months.

Hughes assembled a team of meteorologists working in coordination with Pan American Airways’ weather network to generate forecasts across the entire planned route. He had the Lockheed 14 extensively modified: additional fuel tanks were installed throughout the passenger cabin until the interior looked nothing like an airliner. The total fuel capacity reached approximately 1,400 gallons. He also installed cutting-edge radio equipment, a drift indicator for navigation, and prepared detailed charts for each leg. He flew practice flights and studied weather patterns along the course.

The romantic image of the era was the lone-wolf pilot who trusted instinct and flew by feel. Hughes was something else.

The Aircraft: Lockheed 14 Super Electra

The Lockheed 14 Super Electra was a modern, low-wing twin designed for the airline market - faster and more capable than the earlier Lockheed Electra of the mid-1930s. Hughes’ machine was powered by two Wright Cyclone radial engines and cruised at approximately 220 miles per hour. That was genuinely fast for 1938.

The silver aircraft sitting on the ramp at Floyd Bennett Field that July morning looked almost modest for what it was about to attempt.

The Crew

Hughes could have gone for the record solo. He chose not to. He assembled four specialists and trusted them to do their jobs:

Harry Connor - co-pilot
Thomas Thurlow - navigator
Richard Stoddart - radio operator
Edward Lund - flight engineer

Five men total, each responsible for a defined piece of the operation. The flight engineer’s sole job was keeping the two Wright Cyclones healthy across roughly 14,700 miles.

The Route: New York to Paris to Moscow to Siberia to Alaska

The planned great circle route ran east from New York across the North Atlantic to Paris, then east to Moscow, then deep into the Soviet interior with stops at Omsk and Yakutsk in Siberia, then northeast across to Fairbanks, Alaska, south through Winnipeg and Minneapolis, and back to New York.

They lifted off from Floyd Bennett Field just after 7 a.m. on July 10.

Crossing the Atlantic in 17 Hours

The New York-to-Paris leg took just under 17 hours. Charles Lindbergh had made the same crossing in 33 and a half hours in 1927. Hughes cut the Atlantic crossing time nearly in half - in a modified airliner carrying four other men and enough fuel to continue to Moscow.

They landed at Le Bourget, refueled, and were gone in under an hour.

Siberia: The Legs That Could Have Ended Everything

The Atlantic crossing was the dramatic act. The legs across Siberia were the ones that would have killed the record if anything had gone seriously wrong.

Flying across Siberia in 1938 meant flying over territory with almost no navigation infrastructure, no weather reporting, and no meaningful search-and-rescue capability. A serious engine failure deep in the interior would have been catastrophic. The terrain below was taiga, swamp, flat forest, and occasional mountain ranges, stretching to every horizon. At those latitudes in July, the sun barely sets - the sky cycling between gold and a long gray twilight without ever going fully dark.

They stopped at Omsk, refueled, and kept moving. At Yakutsk - one of the coldest inhabited places on earth in winter, warm and muddy in July - they spent minimal time on the ground. Fuel the airplane, check the systems, get out.

Fairbanks to New York: The Final Push

They reached Fairbanks, Alaska on July 13 - three days after leaving New York, and roughly two-thirds of the way around the world. From Fairbanks they came south through Winnipeg and Minneapolis, the summer plains of North America opening up below the wings.

They landed back at Floyd Bennett Field on July 14.

The total elapsed time: 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, and 10 seconds.

Wiley Post’s five-year-old record had not just been beaten. It had been nearly cut in half.

The Reception: One Million People

New York gave Hughes a ticker-tape parade on July 15. Estimates placed the crowd along the parade route at approximately one million people. He rode through Lower Manhattan at 32 years old, four days removed from having circled the planet.

It was his second ticker-tape parade in two years. The first had been for the transcontinental record.

Why This Flight Still Matters for Pilots

The headline numbers are impressive. What they obscure is the methodology underneath them.

Hughes brought a professional meteorology team. He built redundancy into the radio equipment. He carried a dedicated flight engineer. He flew a route that had been studied for months. He assembled a crew of specialists rather than attempting the feat alone. Every decision was made before the first engine started.

Every preflight weather briefing, every fuel plan built with alternates and reserves, every cross-country where go/no-go minimums are established before untying the airplane - that discipline traces directly back to what Hughes and his crew demonstrated in the summer of 1938. The era of the lone-wolf pioneer was giving way to something more professional: crews, checklists, meteorology services, radio communication, and systematic planning. Hughes was on the leading edge of that transition, whether he framed it in those terms or not.

He flew the way we fly now.

Key Takeaways

Howard Hughes completed the around-the-world record flight on July 14, 1938, covering approximately 14,700 miles in 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, and 10 seconds
He flew a modified Lockheed 14 Super Electra with roughly 1,400 gallons of fuel capacity and a crew of four specialists
The flight cut Wiley Post’s 1933 solo record (7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes) nearly in half
Hughes crossed the North Atlantic in under 17 hours - compared to Lindbergh’s 33.5 hours in 1927
The flight’s lasting significance is its systematic, team-based approach to long-range aviation - preflight planning, dedicated crew roles, meteorology support - that anticipated how professional aviation would operate going forward