Photo: Wikipedia
In 1923 the U.S. Army Air Service was interested in flying military planes a round the world.
The War Department instructed the Air Service to look at both the Fokker F-5 Transport and the Davis-Douglas Cloudster and to acquire one of these planes for a test.
Douglas submitted data on a modified DT-2. This aircraft was a bomber that Douglas had built for the U.S. military in 1921 and 1922.
Since the basic plane already existed, Douglas stated that the new fleet of planes, which he named the Douglas World Cruiser, could be delivered within 45 days. The main modification from the basic model of the plane involved its fuel capacity. The total fuel capacity went from 115 gallons or 435 liters to 644 gallons or 3,438 liters.
Four planes - the Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans - left Santa Monica, California, on March 17, 1924.
They flew to Seattle for the official start of the flight.
Four planes at the start
On April 4, they left Seattle for Alaska.
One plane - the Seattle needed repairs and remained behind with its crew.
When it was repaired and the crew attempted to catch up with the other three planes, it crashed into a mountaintop in the fog.
The crew survived and was picked up, but the plane was destroyed.
Three planes remaining
The three remaining planes continued on their trip.
Avoiding the Soviet Union, they crossed Korea, flew along the coast of China, Hong Kong, Indo-China, Thailand, Burma, and India.
After this they proceeded into the Middle East and then on to Europe.
They arrived in Paris on July 14.
They flew from Paris to London and then up to the north of England to prepare for their Atlantic crossing.
When flying across the Atlantic, the Boston was forced to land and capsized.
Two planes remaining
The two remaining planes crossed the Atlantic via Iceland and Greenland and reached Canada.
A test plane, named the Boston II, met them in Canada and the three planes flew to Washington, D.C. and on to the West Coast.
After a brief stop in Santa Monica they finally landed in Seattle on September 28, 1924.
The trip had taken 175 days.
The exact flying distance is not clear.
Sources differ on whether they flew almost 29,000 miles or 46,671 kilometers, or if they flew 26,553 miles or 42,733 kilometers.
The exact distance flown is perhaps not that important, and the Douglas Company earned the motto "First Around the World."
Source: Modified after The US Centennial off Flight Commission
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