The Douglas World Cruisers of Nineteen Twenty-Four, Chicago and New Orleans, and the First Airplanes Ever to Fly All the Way Around the World

In 1924, the United States Army Air Service completed the first flight around the world using open-cockpit Douglas World Cruiser biplanes. Four aircraft left Seattle on April 6, 1924, and after roughly 27,000 miles and 175 days, two of them - the Chicago and the New Orleans - returned to Seattle on September 28, 1924, becoming the first airplanes in history to circle the globe.

Why Did the Army Try to Fly Around the World in 1924?

Six years after the end of the Great War, most people still saw airplanes as fragile stunts - rich men’s playthings. The Army Air Service, the predecessor of today’s Air Force, had a funding problem: Congress didn’t want to pay for aviation.

The generals concluded they needed to accomplish something no one could dismiss. So they decided to fly an airplane all the way around the world - the first flight of its kind. Not the fastest or the highest, but the first.

What Was the Douglas World Cruiser?

No airplane existed that could make the trip, so the Army turned to a young aircraft builder in Santa Monica, California named Donald Douglas - the same Douglas whose company would later build the legendary DC-3. In 1924 he was still running a small shop with a big idea.

Douglas designed the World Cruiser, a large single-engine biplane with two open cockpits seating two crewmen in a row, exposed to the weather. It was powered by a single Liberty engine - a water-cooled, 12-cylinder powerplant producing more than 400 horsepower, the same type used on many wartime aircraft.

Its clever feature was interchangeable landing gear. Over land, it rolled on wheels. For long stretches over water, crews jacked the aircraft up, removed the wheels, and bolted on large pontoons so it could land at sea - the same airplane with two different sets of feet.

Five were built: one for testing and four for the journey, each named for an American city - Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans.

What Route Did the World Cruisers Fly?

The plan was to head west and north first, up the coast of Canada and Alaska, then hop across to Asia - down through Japan, China, and Southeast Asia - across India and the Middle East, over Europe, and finally the long, dangerous North Atlantic crossing home. The total distance was about 27,000 miles, a feat no one had ever accomplished.

These men flew with no radar, no weather satellites, and no usable radio. They navigated by eye, by compass, by dead reckoning, and by maps that in many places were simply wrong. In the open cockpits, the wind hit them at ninety miles an hour hour after hour, and over Alaska in April it was cold enough to freeze the grease on their goggles. Crews wore leather, fur, and wool - and still coated their faces in whale oil to fend off frostbite.

Which World Cruisers Didn’t Make It?

Trouble struck early. In the Aleutian Islands, home to some of the meanest weather on Earth, the aircraft Seattle - carrying expedition commander Major Frederick Martin and his mechanic, Sergeant Alva Harvey - became separated in fog and flew straight into the side of a mountain.

Both men survived. They walked away from the wreck and then trekked ten days through snow, freezing rain, and wilderness until they stumbled into a coastal fishing cannery, alive. The commander of the entire flight was out before the aircraft had even left the Americas.

The second loss came over the North Atlantic. The aircraft Boston, flown by Lieutenant Leigh Wade and mechanic Henry Ogden, developed engine trouble between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. When the Liberty engine finally failed, Wade set the airplane down on the open ocean atop its pontoons. The two men climbed onto the wings and waited on the heaving sea until a Navy ship rescued them. Attempts to tow the Boston failed; it took on water and sank.

Who Completed the First Round-the-World Flight?

After the Seattle was lost, command passed to a young lieutenant flying the Chicago: Lowell Smith. Rather than let the mission fold, Smith gathered the three remaining aircraft and pressed on.

Along the route, the Army had staged fuel, spare parts, and even complete spare Liberty engines by ship. The crews swapped worn engines themselves - often on a beach or riverbank with nothing but wrenches and their own backs.

They flew through Japan, landed on rivers in China, endured jungle heat and torrential rain across Southeast Asia, crossed India and the deserts of the Middle East, and were welcomed as heroes throughout Europe. Everywhere, the World Cruisers held together - fabric, wood, wire, and one faithful engine, nursed one leg at a time.

After the Boston went down, the Army pressed its fifth aircraft - the prototype - into service. Shipped to Nova Scotia and renamed Boston II, it allowed Wade and Ogden to climb back into an airplane and finish the journey.

On September 28, 1924, the Chicago and the New Orleans touched down on the water at Seattle, right where they’d started. The circle was closed after roughly 175 days, 27,000 miles, about 74 stops, and more than 20 countries.

Two crews made the complete circle:

Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold in the Chicago
Erik Nelson and John Harding in the New Orleans

They are remembered alongside the men who didn’t finish but never failed: Frederick Martin and Alva Harvey, who walked ten days out of the Alaskan wilderness, and Leigh Wade and Henry Ogden, who ditched in the North Atlantic and then climbed back into another airplane to see it through. Eight men, four airplanes - one lost to a mountain, one to the ocean, and two home.

Why Did the Flight Matter?

Charles Lindbergh’s solo Atlantic crossing came three years later, in 1927, and rightly earned its fame. But the Douglas World Cruisers came first, and they proved something larger than any single crossing: the airplane could reach anywhere on Earth - any ocean, any desert, any mountain range.

The achievement also launched a company. Donald Douglas’s small Santa Monica shop had flown around the world before most Americans had ever set foot in an airplane. A few years later, the DC-3 would teach the world to fly - but it started here, with four biplanes and eight stubborn young men.

Where Can You See the Douglas World Cruisers Today?

The Chicago hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The New Orleans survives as well, on display in California. Standing beneath one reveals just how small these aircraft were - and how exposed those open cockpits left their crews to ice, fog, and the North Atlantic.

Key Takeaways

In 1924, the U.S. Army Air Service completed the first flight around the world, departing Seattle on April 6 and returning September 28, 1924.
The Douglas World Cruisers were open-cockpit biplanes with a single 400+ horsepower Liberty engine and swappable wheel/pontoon landing gear.
Of the four aircraft - Seattle, Chicago, Boston, New Orleans - only the Chicago and New Orleans completed the roughly 27,000-mile, 175-day journey.
Four men made the full circle: Lowell Smith, Leslie Arnold, Erik Nelson, and John Harding.
The flight proved aircraft could reach anywhere on Earth and helped launch Donald Douglas’s company, which later built the DC-3.