The Douglas World Cruisers, Lowell Smith, and the First Around-the-World Flight in September Nineteen Twenty-Four

On September 28, 1924, three modified biplanes landed back at Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle, completing the first circumnavigation of the globe by air. The U.S. Army Air Service crews had covered 26,345 miles in 175 days, logging 363 hours and 7 minutes of actual flight time. Most people today cannot name a single one of the eight men who flew it.

What Was the Douglas World Cruiser?

The Douglas World Cruiser was not purpose-built for circumnavigation. Donald Douglas and his team in Santa Monica, California adapted a naval torpedo bomber - the DT-2 - stretching the fuselage, adding internal fuel tanks, and configuring a two-seat open cockpit for pilot and navigator-mechanic. The aircraft could accept either wheeled landing gear or pontoon floats, because the route crossed both land and open ocean. Swapping configurations was a manual operation performed by the crews themselves at remote stops along the route.

Each aircraft weighed approximately 7,000 pounds fully loaded. Power came from a Liberty 12, a V-12 engine producing 420 horsepower - the standard U.S. military engine of the era, proven in the First World War. Reliable enough, but heavy and unforgiving over long distances in all weather.

Who Were the Eight Men?

Four aircraft departed Seattle on April 6, 1924, each painted with the name of an American city:

Seattle: Major Frederick Martin (flight commander) and Sergeant Alva Harvey
Chicago: Lieutenant Lowell Smith and Lieutenant Leslie Arnold
Boston: Lieutenant Leigh Wade and Lieutenant Henry Ogden
New Orleans: Lieutenant Erik Nelson and Lieutenant John Harding

Lowell Smith, age 28, was already one of the Army Air Service’s most capable long-distance pilots. In 1923, he had set an endurance record of more than 37 hours airborne using air-to-air refueling - then a brand-new technique. His most important quality was composure under pressure, which the mission would test from the first month.

Erik Nelson of the New Orleans was the mechanical mind of the group. He could diagnose engine problems by sound and vibration alone, an ability that would keep aircraft flying on multiple occasions over five months of flying.

A Year of Planning Before a Single Propeller Turned

The Army Air Service spent a full year working out the route in detail. Fuel and supply depots were established at dozens of stops across Asia, Europe, and the Atlantic. The U.S. Navy positioned ships across the Pacific as navigation checkpoints and emergency recovery platforms. The State Department spent months negotiating overflight permissions with Japan, China, Siam, British India, Arabia, and more than a dozen European governments.

The Americans were not the only ones trying. Britain, Argentina, Portugal, and Italy all organized competing around-the-world attempts in 1924. This was a geopolitical competition as much as an aviation milestone, and the United States intended to win it.

What Went Wrong: Two Aircraft Lost

The trouble started in the first month.

On April 30, 1924 - less than four weeks after departure - Major Martin and Sergeant Harvey flew the Seattle directly into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula. Dense fog, zero visibility, no terrain warning. Both men survived, then walked ten days through Alaskan wilderness before reaching a village. Martin’s part in the world flight was over. The Seattle was gone.

Command passed to Lowell Smith in the Chicago. He accepted it and turned the formation west.

The second loss came over the North Atlantic. Somewhere between Iceland and the Faroe Islands, the Boston’s engine failed. Leigh Wade got the aircraft down onto open Atlantic water, but North Sea swells heavily damaged it on landing. Both Wade and Ogden were recovered safely. A backup aircraft held in reserve in the United States was flown to Iceland, renamed Boston II, and the two men rejoined the flight.

Three months in, with one aircraft on an Alaskan mountainside and another on the floor of the Atlantic, nobody quit.

Crossing Asia, India, and Europe

The surviving aircraft reached Japan at Kagoshima on May 22, 1924. The reception was extraordinary - schoolchildren lined the streets, officials hosted formal dinners, and the Japanese press ran the story on front pages for days.

From Japan the route continued west across the Yellow Sea to China, through Indochina, and across the Indian subcontinent during monsoon season. Cockpit temperatures exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit with nothing between the crew and a full tropical sun but goggles and a leather helmet. Navigation was entirely by dead reckoning - coastlines where available, survey maps of varying quality, compass headings, elapsed time, and estimated groundspeed. No radio navigation. No instrument approaches.

The route continued through Burma, across the Bay of Bengal, north through Arabia, Baghdad in June heat, Constantinople (modern Istanbul), and into Europe. King George V sent personal congratulations when the crews reached England in late July. By midsummer, the flight had become a global news event covered from Tokyo to London.

The Greenland crossing was among the most demanding legs of the entire journey. Smith and Arnold navigated the featureless ice cap by compass and dead reckoning, with fog sitting on the cold water and no landmarks to check against.

The Finish: September 28, 1924

The crews reached the North American continent in early September 1924. Newspapers ran the story on the front page for a week straight. Crowds gathered at fuel stops down the coast.

On September 28, 1924, all three aircraft landed back at Sand Point in Seattle - 175 days, 26,345 miles, 363 hours and 7 minutes of flight time. The first human beings in history to fly around the entire Earth.

President Coolidge received the crews at the White House. Congress awarded them the Distinguished Flying Cross. For several years, these eight names were known by every American schoolchild.

Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic alone in May 1927, and the world’s attention moved to the next impossible thing. Aviation was adding firsts faster than it could remember them.

Why This Still Matters

Everything in this flight was done without the tools modern pilots take for granted - no GPS, no radio navigation, no weather radar, no instrument approaches. The crews navigated 26,345 miles by compass, dead reckoning, and the ground beneath them. The same fundamentals every pilot learns today carried eight men around the world in open-cockpit biplanes. That context is worth carrying.

Where to See the Surviving Aircraft

Two of the four Douglas World Cruisers survive:

The Chicago is on display at the Steven Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia, near Washington Dulles International Airport. Visitors can stand close enough to see the rivet lines on the cowling and the name painted on the nose.
The New Orleans is at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

The Seattle remains somewhere on an Alaskan mountainside. The Boston rests on the floor of the North Atlantic. Two of four made it around the world. Two did not make it home. That is also part of the history.

Key Takeaways

The first around-the-world flight was completed on September 28, 1924 - 175 days and 26,345 miles after departing Seattle on April 6.
Four aircraft started; only three finished, with the Seattle lost to a mountain in Alaska and the Boston lost to the North Atlantic.
Lowell Smith assumed command after the flight leader crashed in the first month and brought the mission home.
The entire route was navigated by dead reckoning - no radio navigation, no instrument approaches, just compass headings, elapsed time, and survey maps.
The Chicago and New Orleans are on public display today; anyone can stand next to an aircraft that flew around the world in 1924.