The first flight around the world landed back in Seattle
On this day · 28 September 1924
Eight U.S. Army aviators set out to circle the planet by air; after 175 days, two patched-up biplanes limped home.
On September 28, 1924, two open-cockpit biplanes touched down at Seattle’s Sand Point field, completing the first aerial circumnavigation of the globe. The U.S. Army Air Service had launched the attempt the previous April with four Douglas World Cruisers and eight airmen, fitted with pontoons or wheels as the route demanded.
It was a brutal slog rather than a victory lap. One cruiser, the Seattle, crashed into an Alaskan mountainside; the Boston was forced down near Iceland and sank. Only the Chicago and New Orleans finished, having logged some 27,550 miles over 175 days of fog, monsoons, and engine swaps.
Around the world in 175 days, with 371 hours and 11 minutes of actual flying time.
The feat beat rival British, French, and Italian crews to the milestone, and it stitched together a planet that aviation was about to shrink for good. A century on, the surviving Chicago still hangs in a Smithsonian gallery.
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