The 1924 Army Around the World Flight - Four Planes, Two Oceans, and the First Circumnavigation by Air

On April 6, 1924, four U.S. Army Air Service biplanes lifted off from Sand Point aerodrome near Seattle and began the first aerial circumnavigation of the Earth. 175 days, 26,000 miles, 57 stops, and 28 countries later, two of those aircraft landed back where they had started. What they accomplished between those two dates defined the outer edge of what early aviation could do.

The Aircraft: Douglas World Cruisers

The four planes were purpose-built for the mission by Donald Douglas - the same engineer who would later produce the DC-3. Called the Douglas World Cruisers, they were open-cockpit biplanes powered by a single Liberty V-12 engine producing roughly 400 horsepower. Wingspan was 50 feet. The tandem cockpit put the pilot in the rear seat and the mechanic up front.

They were designed to swap between floats and wheeled landing gear depending on the terrain at each stop. The names stenciled on the noses - Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans - identified both the aircraft and their two-man crews.

Navigation equipment consisted of a magnetic compass, a clock, and the judgment of experienced airmen. No radio navigation. No weather radar. No autopilot.

The Eight Men and the Route

Major Frederick Martin commanded the mission and flew the Seattle with Sergeant Alva Harvey. Lieutenant Lowell Smith and Lieutenant Leslie Arnold flew the Chicago. Lieutenant Leigh Wade and Sergeant Henry Ogden flew the Boston. Lieutenant Erik Nelson and Lieutenant John Harding flew the New Orleans.

The planned route ran west from Seattle: north through Alaska, across the North Pacific via the Aleutian Islands, through Japan and China, across Indochina and India, through the Middle East and into Europe, north to Iceland and Greenland, across the North Atlantic to Canada, then south down the East Coast back to Seattle. The route was designed to use the Aleutian chain as stepping stones across the Pacific - a thousand miles of volcanic rock, frozen tundra, and some of the worst flying weather on Earth.

This was also a race. The Royal Air Force launched competing crews eastbound while the Americans headed west. The entire world was watching.

Alaska: The Mission’s First Crisis

Alaska in April 1924 offered no navigation aids and no meaningful weather observation network. When the fog came down in the mountains, it came down completely.

On April 30, twenty-four days into the mission, Major Martin and Sergeant Harvey were flying near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula when visibility collapsed around them. The Seattle clipped a ridgeline. Both men survived the crash, but they were on the Alaskan tundra with no radio and no emergency beacon.

They walked for ten days before they were found.

The Army faced a decision: abort or continue. They continued. Command passed to Lowell Smith in the Chicago. Smith was 32 years old, a Californian who had been flying since 1917, and he led the remaining three aircraft southwest down the Aleutian chain toward Japan.

Across the Pacific and Asia

Japan received the American fliers with full Imperial Navy honors at every stop. The crews moved fast - through China, down into Indochina, across to India. The tropics introduced a different set of problems: heat that overloaded the Liberty engines in high humidity, grease that liquefied and ran off the cowlings, and airframes that demanded constant maintenance.

Army ground crews had been pre-positioned along the route months in advance, and they worked through equatorial nights to keep the aircraft serviceable. The landscape below changed from jungle to desert to mountain range to coastline across a single day’s flying, navigated entirely by compass and terrain recognition.

By late June, the three aircraft reached Constantinople - modern Istanbul. They were halfway around the world.

The North Atlantic Takes the Boston

The British competitors had not fared well. One RAF aircraft was lost near Calcutta. The second, commanded by Stuart Maclaren, was still flying east but falling behind. The Americans were pulling away.

Then the North Atlantic struck back.

The Boston developed engine trouble between the British Isles and Iceland. Wade and Ogden went down on the water. The USS Richmond, a U.S. Navy cruiser positioned along the route, found them before the ocean did. Both men were rescued. The aircraft was lost.

The Army had planned for this. A fifth Douglas World Cruiser - held in reserve in England - was waiting. Wade and Ogden crossed back to the British Isles, climbed into the replacement aircraft, named it Boston II, and rejoined the mission. The Atlantic was not going to stop them.

Three aircraft again. West toward Greenland.

The Final Crossing

Iceland to Greenland. Greenland to Labrador. Each leg calculated to the last gallon of fuel, flown low over water that offered no second chances. Fog sat on the ocean for hours at a time and turned the cockpit into a gray void with no horizon.

They made Labrador. They turned south.

Down the East Coast, the country that had been following the mission in the newspapers came out to meet them. Fireboats in Boston Harbor sprayed arcs of water as the three biplanes passed overhead. Crowds in New York and Washington packed the waterfronts.

On September 28, 1924, the Chicago, the New Orleans, and Boston II touched down at Sand Point, Washington - 175 days after they had left.

Stuart Maclaren and the remaining British crew were still fighting their way across the Pacific. They never completed the circumnavigation.

What They Built After

Lowell Smith went on to set additional records and became one of the most decorated early Army Air Service aviators. Erik Nelson, who flew the New Orleans through every leg without losing the aircraft, moved into a key role in early commercial aviation. Leigh Wade, who lost his aircraft over the North Atlantic and immediately got back in another one, continued a long and distinguished military career.

Donald Douglas went on to build the DC-2, the DC-3, and a line of aircraft that carried the passengers and cargo of the twentieth century for the next four decades.

The Chicago is on display today at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Key Takeaways

The 1924 U.S. Army World Flight was the first aerial circumnavigation of Earth, completed over 175 days across 26,000 miles, 57 stops, and 28 countries
The Douglas World Cruisers were purpose-built biplanes with interchangeable float and wheeled landing gear, navigating by compass and terrain alone
Major Martin’s crash in Alaska and the loss of the Boston over the North Atlantic both required the mission to adapt mid-flight - and both times it did
The Americans were racing British RAF crews who launched simultaneously heading east; the RAF never completed the circumnavigation
The mission’s legacy runs directly to Donald Douglas and the DC-3, and to a generation of military aviators who shaped early commercial aviation