The Douglas World Cruisers and the Nineteen Twenty-Four Flight That Carried Four Open-Cockpit Biplanes All the Way Around the World

In 1924, eight US Army airmen made the first successful flight around the world in four open-cockpit biplanes called Douglas World Cruisers. They departed Seattle, Washington, on April 6, 1924, and returned September 28, 1924, covering roughly 26,000 miles over about 175 days. Two of the four aircraft - the Chicago and the New Orleans - completed the entire circumnavigation, proving for the first time that an aircraft could cross the planet’s oceans and survive.

Why a Flight Around the World Mattered in 1924

In the early 1920s, the airplane was still fighting for its reputation. The Great War had shown the world that aircraft could drop bombs and shoot each other down, but many people still dismissed them as noisy, unreliable machines that fell out of the sky at the slightest provocation.

National prestige changed that. Whichever country flew around the world first would stake a claim on the future of aviation itself. Britain, France, Italy, Portugal, and Argentina all had teams preparing to attempt it. None had succeeded. The United States Army Air Service decided America would be first, and turned to a young aircraft builder named Donald Douglas.

What Was the Douglas World Cruiser?

Donald Douglas was working out of a former movie studio building in Santa Monica, California, when the Army approached him with an extraordinary requirement: an airplane that could cross oceans, land on both water and dirt, survive Arctic cold and tropical heat, and be simple enough to repair in a field with hand tools - because no mechanic would be waiting in the middle of the Pacific.

Douglas adapted a torpedo bomber he had already designed and called the result the Douglas World Cruiser. It was a large open-cockpit biplane seating two - pilot in front, mechanic behind - powered by a single 420-horsepower Liberty engine, the same basic engine that had powered the war. It had a wingspan of about 50 feet and was built of wood, steel tube, and doped fabric.

The clever innovation was interchangeability. The crews could swap between wheels and pontoons, using large floats for ocean and coastal legs and landing wheels for stretches over land - because prepared runways simply did not exist across most of the world.

Five aircraft were built: one for testing and four for the flight. Each was named after an American city from a different corner of the country: the Seattle, the Chicago, the Boston, and the New Orleans.

Who Flew the First Flight Around the World?

Twenty-eight men volunteered. The Army selected eight - four pilots and four mechanics, two to an aircraft. The expedition commander was Major Frederick Martin, flying the Seattle. Also aboard were Lieutenant Lowell Smith and Lieutenant Erik Nelson, the latter regarded as one of the finest experts alive on the Liberty engine.

They lifted off from Seattle on April 6, 1924, heading north and west toward Alaska.

How Did They Lose the First Two Aircraft?

The first loss came almost immediately. In heavy Alaskan fog, Major Martin and his mechanic in the Seattle became separated from the group. Flying low along the coast to catch up, they flew directly into the side of a mountain hidden in the murk.

Remarkably, both men survived the crash. Stranded in the snow with no radio and no rescue coming, they walked out of the Alaskan wilderness on foot - ten days through the cold on emergency rations - until they reached a fishing cannery alive. But the Seattle was gone, and by the rules of the flight, Martin was out. Command passed to Lieutenant Lowell Smith in the Chicago.

The three remaining aircraft pressed on across the Aleutians, over to the Kamchatka coast, and down through Japan, China, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Indochina, and Siam (present-day Thailand). Cold gave way to tropical monsoon rain, fever, and engines running hot in thick air.

The second loss came over the North Atlantic. The Boston, flown by Lieutenant Leigh Wade, developed an oil-pressure failure over the water between the Orkney Islands and Iceland. Wade set the biplane down on the open ocean swells. A Navy ship attempted to hoist it from the water, but the sea was too rough; the Boston was damaged, capsized, and had to be cut loose. The crew was saved, but the aircraft sank.

How Did the Crews Keep the Aircraft Flying?

Support existed - advance parties, Navy ships positioned along the route, and spare parts staged at ports around the world - but repairs came down to two men and their own hands. Mechanics like Erik Nelson changed entire engines while floating on pontoons in foreign harbors, hoisting 500-pound Liberty engines with rope and muscle.

They rebuilt the aircraft repeatedly: new engines, new wings, new pontoons, patched fabric, and spliced wire. By the end, hardly an original part remained on any of them. The aircraft that finished were the same machines in name and spirit, rebuilt many times over on the far side of the earth.

How Did the Flight Finish?

Only the Chicago and the New Orleans remained for the most dangerous stretch - the North Atlantic crossing from Scotland to the Orkneys, Iceland, Greenland, and finally Labrador, where a forced landing in the frigid water meant almost certain death. Both aircraft made it, becoming the first ever to fly across an ocean as part of a circumnavigation.

They flew down the coast to American crowds. Because the Boston had been lost, the prototype was sent up, christened the Boston II, and flew the final legs in formation through New York and Washington before the aircraft crossed the country westward.

They landed back in Seattle on September 28, 1924 - roughly 26,000 miles and about 175 days after they left, across two dozen countries and every kind of weather imaginable. It was the first flight around the world in human history.

Where Are the Douglas World Cruisers Today?

Two of the original aircraft survive. The Chicago hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where visitors can stand beneath it. The New Orleans survives in the western United States. Both are strikingly small and simple machines for what they accomplished.

The story endures in the records of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the historical accounts of the United States Air Force.

Key Takeaways

Four Douglas World Cruisers left Seattle on April 6, 1924, attempting the first flight around the world; two completed it, returning September 28, 1924.
The journey covered roughly 26,000 miles in about 175 days across two dozen countries.
The Seattle was lost to a mountain crash in Alaska (both crew survived a 10-day walk out), and the Boston sank in the North Atlantic after an oil-pressure failure (crew rescued).
The surviving Chicago and New Orleans proved an aircraft could cross the planet’s oceans, laying the groundwork for modern long-distance and transoceanic flight.
The Chicago is preserved at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; the New Orleans survives in the western United States.