The Douglas World Cruiser Chicago, the 1924 Army Air Service World Flight, and the Smithsonian Biplane That Circled the Earth Before Anyone Else Did

The Douglas World Cruiser Chicago completed the first circumnavigation of the globe by aircraft on September 28, 1924, returning to Lake Washington in Seattle after 175 days, 27,553 miles, and stops across more than two dozen countries. The original airframe hangs today in the Milestones of Flight gallery at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum - one of the most consequential machines in aviation history, and one of the most overlooked.

The Race No One Officially Declared

In 1924, the world was running an aviation race without a formal starting gun. Britain had made two failed attempts to circle the globe by air. Portugal, Argentina, and France were actively pursuing circumnavigation. The nations involved understood, without needing to say it plainly, that whoever mastered long-range aviation would have significant influence over the coming century.

Major General Mason Patrick, chief of the Army Air Service, ordered a circumnavigation attempt using purpose-built aircraft - not conversions, not compromises. Four planes, built from scratch for the mission.

The Aircraft: Douglas World Cruisers

The contract went to Douglas Aircraft, based in Santa Monica, California. The company had been in business for barely two years when the commission arrived.

The resulting aircraft were open-cockpit biplanes descended from a torpedo bomber design, substantially reworked for global range. Wingspan: approximately 50 feet. Power plant: a Liberty V-12 engine producing roughly 400 horsepower. The defining engineering feature was an interchangeable undercarriage - wheels for land operations, floats for water landings. The route demanded both, and Douglas engineered one airframe that could handle either.

Five were built: four for the mission, one held in reserve. That decision would matter before the flight was over.

Each aircraft carried two men: a pilot and a mechanic. On a mission of this distance, both roles were essential from the first mile to the last.

The planes were named after American cities: Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans.

The Crews

Seattle: Major Frederick Martin (commanding), Sergeant Alva Harvey
Chicago: Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith, Lieutenant Leslie Arnold
New Orleans: Lieutenant Erik Nelson, Lieutenant John Harding
Boston: Lieutenant Leigh Wade, Sergeant Henry Ogden

Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith deserves particular attention. In 1923, the year before this mission, Smith and an officer named Richter set a world endurance record by remaining airborne for 37 hours using aerial refueling - passing a fuel hose between aircraft in flight. The technique was experimental and genuinely dangerous. He did it anyway. That is the man who flew the Chicago around the world.

The Ground Operation Nobody Remembers

The logistics were as complex as anything the Army had organized in peacetime. Months before departure, Army officers were dispatched around the globe to pre-position fuel, oil, and spare parts at 74 planned stops. They negotiated landing rights with foreign governments and coordinated with harbor masters and military liaisons across Alaska, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the North Atlantic.

If the wrong spare part was not waiting at the right location when the aircraft arrived, the mission stopped. The men who built and maintained that supply chain rarely appear in the history books. They should.

Departure and the Alaska Challenge

The formation lifted from Lake Washington, Seattle, on April 6, 1924, in front of crowds on the water and shore. They turned north toward Alaska.

Alaska delivered its worst almost immediately. No navigational infrastructure. No weather broadcasts. No radio beacons. Navigation was chart, compass, and dead reckoning. On April 30, Major Martin in the Seattle encountered fog pressing down over the Chugach Mountains while an engine problem developed simultaneously. He put the aircraft down in the wilderness. Both Martin and Harvey survived and made their way out of the Alaskan backcountry over roughly ten days before rescue. The Seattle was destroyed. The commanding aircraft was gone before the mission was three weeks old.

The three remaining crews flew on.

Asia, the Silk Road, and Nightly Maintenance

The Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans crossed into Asia. At harbor stops in Japan, military officers came aboard to inspect the Liberty engines firsthand - men who had studied these machines from a distance and now wanted to see the real thing. Along the China coast and into Southeast Asia, the crews arrived at communities where their aircraft was the first powered airplane anyone present had ever seen. None of the crews had interpreters.

The mechanics worked every night. All 175 of them. They changed oil in tropical rain on improvised platforms. They repaired components ahead of expected intervals. They fabricated solutions to problems no one in Santa Monica had anticipated, communicating across language barriers with hand gestures and borrowed tools.

The route traced the ancient Silk Road lanes from above - through India, the Persian Gulf, and across the old territories of trade and civilization at a speed no ship had ever matched. In Europe, the aviation community recognized them immediately. French aviators who met them in Paris understood exactly what they were witnessing.

The North Atlantic

August 1924. The crossing from Europe to North America was the leg mission planners had worried about most. It earned that concern.

Lieutenant Wade in the Boston lost oil pressure in the vicinity of Iceland and put the aircraft down on the open water. He and Sergeant Ogden were recovered by ship. The Boston was lost. Two aircraft down. Two remaining.

The backup aircraft - held in reserve since the beginning - was rushed to Pictou, Nova Scotia, and designated Boston Two. Wade and Ogden rejoined the formation there and flew the final legs home alongside Smith and Nelson. They were already out of the mission through no fault of their own. They chose to finish anyway.

The Return to Lake Washington

On September 28, 1924, Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith throttled back the Chicago’s Liberty engine and settled the floats onto Lake Washington in Seattle - 175 days and 27,553 miles after lifting from that same water. 74 stops. More than two dozen countries. Every major ocean. Every climate zone the earth has to offer.

The Army band was on shore. The press had tracked the mission for months. The crews were received by President Calvin Coolidge and paraded through Washington and New York. By most accounts, Smith climbed out of the cockpit, accepted handshakes, and immediately began cataloguing maintenance items.

Where the Aircraft Are Today

The Chicago was transferred to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, where it remains on display in the Milestones of Flight gallery. It is the original airframe - not a replica, not a recreation. The Liberty engine is there. The open cockpit sits at near eye level. Most visitors walk past it toward the Spirit of St. Louis or the Wright Flyer. The Spirit of St. Louis came three years later and carries a more familiar story. But the Chicago was first, and it covered considerably more distance.

The New Orleans, the other aircraft that completed the circumnavigation, is on display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Two World Cruisers made it to museums. Two did not come home.

Twenty-One Years

The Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903. Twenty-one years later, Americans had flown around the entire planet. Not across a field. Not across a continent. The full circumference of the earth, completed for the first time in human history, in a machine with an open cockpit and no weather protection.

That compression - twelve seconds over a North Carolina beach in 1903 to a global circumnavigation in 1924 - is one of the most striking trajectories in the history of technology. The line runs directly from the sand at Kitty Hawk through the water at Lake Washington and forward through every pressurized cockpit that followed.

Key Takeaways

The 1924 Army Air Service World Flight was the first circumnavigation of the globe by aircraft, completing on September 28, 1924 after 175 days and 27,553 miles
Four Douglas World Cruisers flew the mission; two completed it (Chicago and New Orleans); two were lost (Seattle in Alaska on April 30, Boston in the North Atlantic near Iceland)
The mission required months of advance logistics: 74 stops pre-stocked with fuel, parts, and oil across more than two dozen countries before a single aircraft lifted off
Lieutenant Lowell H. Smith, pilot of the Chicago, had set a world endurance record using aerial refueling (37 hours airborne) just one year before the world flight
The Douglas World Cruiser Chicago is on display in original form at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; the New Orleans is at the California Science Center in Los Angeles