The Douglas World Cruisers and the First Flight Around the World in Nineteen Twenty-Four

In 1924, eight US Army Air Service airmen made the first flight around the world, piloting four open-cockpit Douglas World Cruiser biplanes over roughly 27,000 miles in about 175 days. They left Seattle on April 6, 1924, and two of the four aircraft completed the circumnavigation, returning on September 28, 1924 - beating rival attempts by Britain, France, Italy, and Portugal. It was one of aviation’s first great feats of teamwork and logistics, not just flying.

What Was the Douglas World Cruiser?

The Douglas World Cruiser was a large biplane built specifically for the round-the-world attempt by a then-unknown aircraft maker: Donald Douglas, working out of a small shop in Santa Monica, California. Douglas would later build the DC-3, the airliner that made long-distance air travel practical - but in 1924 his company was a newcomer taking on an impossible-sounding job.

Douglas adapted one of his existing torpedo-bomber designs and rebuilt it for the mission. The aircraft had a wingspan of about 50 feet and was powered by a single Liberty V-12 engine producing over 400 horsepower - the same basic power plant the US had mass-produced during World War I.

Its cleverest feature was interchangeable landing gear. The crews could swap between wheels for deserts and plains and pontoons for long ocean and jungle legs where no runway existed for hundreds of miles.

Douglas built five aircraft: one prototype and four for the flight itself. Each of the four was named for an American city, roughly one per compass point: the Seattle, the Chicago, the Boston, and the New Orleans.

Who Made the First Flight Around the World?

Eight men flew the mission - a pilot and a mechanic in each aircraft, seated in tandem in open cockpits with no canopy, no heater, and no useful radio. Their instruments amounted to a compass, a watch, and a paper chart.

The overall commander was Major Frederick Martin, flying the Seattle. When Martin’s aircraft was lost in Alaska early in the flight, command passed to a young officer named Lieutenant Lowell Smith, flying the Chicago. Smith led the expedition through the rest of its journey.

Aviation was barely 21 years old at the time - the Wright brothers had first flown in 1903. Engines were unreliable, wood rotted, fabric tore, and navigation meant matching the ground below to a chart on your knee. No one had ever flown around the world, and it had become a matter of national pride comparable to the later space race.

The Route: From Seattle Around the World

The flight headed north and west from Seattle up the coast toward Alaska, then worked its way across the globe before returning to its starting point. The major stages were:

North America to Asia: Up through Alaska and along the Aleutian and Kuril island chains to Japan, where the crews received a hero’s welcome.
Across Asia: China, French Indochina (today’s Vietnam and Thailand), Burma, and India - flown through monsoon rains and heat so intense it sapped engine power on takeoff. Malaria struck the crews.
The Middle East and Europe: Across Iraq and the deserts, through Turkey, and into Europe, with stops including Paris and London. Blowing sand worked its way into engines and bearings.
The North Atlantic: From the British Isles by way of the Orkney Islands, then Iceland, Greenland, and down to Labrador - the cold, fog-bound, iceberg-strewn crossing everyone had dreaded.

Every landing drew larger crowds. The flight was front-page news worldwide, and the crews became some of the first global celebrities of the air age.

The Crashes: How Two Aircraft Were Lost

Two of the four World Cruisers never finished the flight, but remarkably, every crew member survived.

The Seattle, carrying commander Major Martin and his mechanic, flew into a mountainside in fog over the Aleutians early in the journey. Both men survived the crash but were stranded in the Alaskan wilderness. For ten days no one knew if they were alive, until they walked out on foot and reached a coastal fishing village. Rather than turn back, the remaining crews pressed on with three aircraft under Lieutenant Smith.

The Boston was lost later, on the crossing between the Orkneys and Iceland, when its Liberty engine developed an oil-pressure problem. The crew put the aircraft down on the open ocean, and a Navy ship came alongside to hoist it out - but the sea damaged the aircraft during recovery, and it sank. The crew was pulled safely aboard.

That left just two aircraft, the Chicago and the New Orleans, to complete the circumnavigation.

The Logistics Effort Behind the Flight

The flight succeeded because of an enormous ground and sea operation staged months in advance. The US Navy stationed ships along the ocean routes, and advance teams positioned spare Liberty engines, spare pontoons, and drums of fuel at ports around the world.

When the aircraft came down, mechanics, fuel, and fresh oil were waiting. This was one of the great logistics achievements of its era - every bit as important as the flying itself.

There was also a fitting final touch. After the Boston sank, the Army refurbished the original prototype, renamed it the Boston II, and gave it to the Boston’s crew so they could rejoin the formation and fly the last legs home. No one who started the flight was left out of the finish.

Where Are the Douglas World Cruisers Today?

Both surviving aircraft are still preserved. The Chicago - the aircraft Lowell Smith flew and the one that led the expedition after Martin’s crash - hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The New Orleans, the other survivor, is preserved in California.

More than a century after they made history, two of the four original World Cruisers remain, a tangible link to a time when the world map still had blank spots on it.

Why the World Flight Still Matters

The first flight around the world is often overshadowed by the lone-pilot record-setters of aviation’s golden age. But the World Flight was never about a single hero. It was a team: four crews, eight men in the air, and hundreds more on the ground and at sea.

A commander crashed in the first weeks and watched his men finish without him. A young lieutenant took over without hesitation. Mechanics swapped gear in mud, cold, and heat, and sailors waited mid-ocean with spare parts. Together they proved that with enough planning, grit, and coordinated effort, the airplane could reach any corner of the Earth - a lesson at the heart of aviation ever since.

Key Takeaways

The first flight around the world was completed by the US Army Air Service in 1924, using four Douglas World Cruiser biplanes.
The journey ran from April 6 to September 28, 1924, covering about 27,000 miles in roughly 175 days.
The Seattle (commander Major Frederick Martin) crashed in Alaska and the Boston sank in the North Atlantic, but all crew members survived; the Chicago and New Orleans completed the flight.
The aircraft were built by Donald Douglas and could switch between wheels and pontoons for varied terrain.
The Chicago is displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, and the New Orleans is preserved in California.