first aerial circumnavigation

In the early 1920s several countries were vying to be the first to fly around the world. The British had made one unsuccessful around-the-world air flight attempt in 1922. The following year, a French team had tried; the Italians, Portuguese, and British also announced plans for world-circling flights. In early 1923, the US Army Air Service became interested in having a squadron of military aircraft undertake a round-the-world flight. It assigned a group of officers in the War Department planning group, formed as the World Flight Committee,{{rp|6}} the job of finding a suitable aircraft and planning the mission.Swanborough and Bowers 1963, p. 548. This high-level Army enterprise, under the command of Major General Mason M. Patrick, Chief of the Air Service, would have the support of the Navy, Diplomatic Corps, Bureau of Fisheries and Coast Guard Services.{{rp|4}}File:Aircraft Chicago;Aero27G6.jpgThe War Department instructed the Air Service to look at both the Fokker T-2 transport and the Davis-Douglas Cloudster to see if either would be suitable and to acquire examples for testing.{{#tag:ref| During 1922–1923, the Fokker T-2 was used by the U.S. Army to set a series of long distance and endurance records.[http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1922/1922%20-%200615.html "Fine American Duration Flight."] Flight, 19 October 1922, p. 615.|group=N}} Although deemed satisfactory, the planning group considered other US Air Service military aircraft both in service and production, with a view that a dedicated design that could be fitted with interchangeable landing gear, wheeled and pontoons for water landings, would be preferable.Rumerman, Judy. [http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Aerospace/Douglas_World_Trip/Aero27.htm "The Douglas World Cruiser – Around the World in 175 Days."] U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission, 2003. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

When the head of Davis-Douglas, Donald Douglas, was asked for information on the Davis-Douglas Cloudster, he instead submitted data on a modified DT-2,[http://www.didyouknow.org/aroundtheworld/flight.htm "First to fly around the world."] Did You Know.org. Retrieved: 7 July 2012. a torpedo bomber that Douglas had built for the US Navy in 1921 and 1922. The DT-2 had proven to be a sturdy aircraft that could accommodate interchangeable wheeled and pontoon landing gear. Since the aircraft was an existing model, Douglas stated that a new aircraft, which he named the Douglas World Cruiser (DWC), could be delivered within 45 days after a contract was awarded. The Air Service agreed and sent Lieutenant Erik Henning Nelson (1888–1970), a member of the planning group, to California to work out the details with Douglas. {{#tag:ref|Lt. Nelson was eventually assigned to the World Flight as the pilot of DWC #4.|group=N}}"Collections: Douglas World Cruiser Chicago – Long Description." National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

Douglas, assisted by Jack Northrop,Boyne 1982, p. 80. began to modify a DT-2 to suit the circumnavigation requirements. The main modification involved its fuel capacity.Yenne 2003, p. 48. All the internal bomb carrying structures were removed with additional fuel tanks added to the wings and fuselage fuel tanks enlarged in the aircraft. The total fuel capacity went from {{convert|115|to|644|USgal|liter|abbr=off|sp=us}}.

Nelson took the Douglas proposal to Washington where General Patrick approved it on 1 August 1923. The War Department awarded an initial contract to Douglas for the construction of a single prototype.[http://www.aviation-central.com/famous/ab1d0.htm "Douglas DT-2 World Cruiser."] Aviation Central.com. Retrieved: 7 July 2012. The prototype met all expectations, and a contract was awarded for four more production aircraft and spare parts.Francillon 1979, p. 75. The last DWC was delivered on 11 March 1924. The spare parts included 15 extra Liberty engines, 14 extra sets of pontoons, and enough replacement airframe parts for two more aircraft. These spare parts were sent ahead to locations along the route around the world the aircraft planned to follow.Bryan 1979, p. 122.

The aircraft were equipped with no radios{{rp|253}}communicating by message bag and hand signals nor avionics of any sort, leaving their crew to rely entirely on dead reckoning to navigate.

File:Pilots of the 1924 Round The World Flight.jpg

• Seattle (No. 1): Maj. Frederick L. Martin (1882–1956), pilot and flight commander, and SSgt. Alva L. Harvey (1900–1992), flight mechanic (failed to circumnavigate)
• Chicago (No. 2): Lt. Lowell H. Smith (1892–1945), pilot, subsequent flight commander, and 1st Lt. Leslie P. Arnold (1893–1961), co-pilot
• Boston (No. 3)/Boston II (prototype): 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (1897–1991), pilot, and SSgt. Henry H. Ogden (1900–1986), flight mechanic (failed to circumnavigate)
• New Orleans (No. 4): Lt. Erik H. Nelson (1888–1970), pilot, and Lt. John Harding Jr. (1896–1968), co-pilot{{rp|43}}

The pilots trained in meteorology and navigation at Langley Field in Virginia, where they also practiced in the prototype. From February to March 1924, the crews practiced on the production aircraft at the Douglas facility in Santa Monica and in San Diego.{{rp|10–12}}

Four aircraft, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans, left Clover Field, Santa Monica, California, on 17 March 1924, for Sand Point in Seattle, Washington, the official start of the journey.{{rp|13}}Stoff 2000, p. 21. The individual aircraft were christened with waters from their namesake cities, prior to departure from Seattle where Boeing Company technicians configured the aircraft for the long over-water portion of the flight, by exchanging wheels for pontoon floats.

File:Martin and Harvey at Port Moller.jpg

On 6 April 1924,[https://web.archive.org/web/20130702114139/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=751 "First round-the-world flight."] National Museum of the United States Air Force, 8 July 2009. Retrieved: 14 July 2017. just 13 days after the British, under Stuart-MacLaren, set off from England in the opposite direction,{{cite web|url=http://fly.historicwings.com/2012/06/race-to-fly-first-around-the-world/|title=The Race to Fly First Around the World|access-date=26 May 2019}} they left Seattle for Alaska. Shortly after departing Prince Rupert Island on 15 April, the lead aircraft Seattle, flown by Martin with Harvey (the only fully qualified mechanic in the flight), blew a {{convert|3|in|cm|0|adj=on}} hole in its crankcase and was forced to land on Portage Bay.{{rp|72}} A replacement engine having been provided, Seattle{{'}}s crew resumed their journey on 25 April,{{rp|73}} in an attempt to catch up with the other three aircraft awaiting in Dutch Harbor{{rp|78–79}} but which ended in failure on 30 April when Seattle crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula. It was destroyed in the crash. The crew survived six days in the elements before finding shelter in an unoccupied cabin on Moller Bay and made it to a cannery four days later.{{rp|86–91}}[http://www.alaskaairmuseum.org/flightline/hangar_south.php "South Hangar: Douglas World Cruiser 'Seattle'."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622074326/http://www.alaskaairmuseum.org/flightline/hangar_south.php |date=22 June 2012 }} Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

The three remaining aircraft continued, with Chicago, flown by Smith and Arnold, assuming the lead. {{#tag:ref|One of the Army's best aviators, Smith was named to pilot the Chicago and was permitted to choose his own co-pilot, Arnold, who would double as a flight mechanic.|group=N}} Tracing the Aleutian Islands, the flight traveled across the North Pacific, landing in the Soviet Union notwithstanding the lack of entry permission. The Aleuts of Atka applied the term "thunder-bird" from their mythology to the aircraft.{{rp|100}}

On 25 May, whilst in Tokyo, the team received a cable reporting "MacLaren crashed at Akyab [Burma]. Plane completely wrecked. Continuance of flight doubtful." They responded by arranging delivery of a spare plane from Tokyo to Akyab (Sittwe) on the USS Paul Jones (DD-230), transshipped in Hong Kong onto the USS William B. Preston, enabling the British to continue in their attempt to be first,{{rp|139–141}} as the Portuguese and Argentinians also pressed on.{{rp|142}}

File:Douglas World Cruiser.jpg.]]

The aircraft continued via Korea and down the coast of China to French Indochina (now Vietnam). After leaving Haiphong in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Chicago{{'s}} engine broke a connecting rod and it was forced to land in a lagoon near Huế. The aircraft was considered a novelty in this region and missionary priests supplied the pilots with food and wine while locals climbed aboard its pontoons. The other flyers, who had continued on to Tourane (Da Nang), searched for Chicago by boat and found the crew sitting on the wing in the early morning hours. Three paddle-powered sampans with local crews towed the aircraft for 10 hours, and {{convert|25|mi}}, to Huế, where the engine was replaced with a spare shipped from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City):{{rp|167–174}} "[T]he fastest – and undoubtedly the first – engine change that had ever been made in Indochina."Roberts, Chuck. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924045409/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-105477544.html "Magellans of the sky: lessons learned from the epic 1924 around the world flight are visible in today's Air Force, but the memory of those who made it possible have faded with the years. (A Centennial of Flight Special Feature)."] Airman {{Subscription required}}, 1 July 2003. Retrieved: 20 July 2012.

The flight continued through Thailand and on to Burma where they came within earshot of MacLaren during a torrential downpour east of Akyab, MacLaren having just resumed his attempt in the aircraft delivered by the Americans and sheltering on the surface at the time. Visual contact was not made and the Americans were unaware of their proximity to MacLaren.{{rp|190}}

After carrying out the major operation of exchanging the Cruisers' floats for wheeled undercarriage at Calcutta, on the evening of 29 June Smith, in the dark after dinner, slipped and broke a rib. He nevertheless insisted on continuing without delaying the mission.Wendell 1999/2000, pp. 339–372, 356–366.{{rp|194}} All three aircraft were fitted with new engines in Karachi, New Orleans having suffered a catastrophic engine failure just short of the city and limped in on intermittent power.{{rp|207–209}}

They then proceeded into the Middle East and then Europe.Mackworth-Praed 1990, p. 235. The flight arrived in Paris on Bastille Day, 14 July. From Paris the aircraft flew to London and on to the north of England in order to prepare for the Atlantic Ocean crossing by re-installing pontoons and changing engines.[http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/dwc.htm "Douglas World Cruiser Transport."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120625174442/http://www.boeing.com/history/mdc/dwc.htm |date=25 June 2012 }} Boeing. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.{{rp|247}}

File:Coolidge inspecting world flight plane 3.jpg inspected the planes when they landed in Washington, D.C., toward the end of the tour in September 1924]]

On 3 August 1924, en route from Orkney to Iceland, an oil pump failure forced Boston down onto the sea less than halfway to the Faroes. The accompanying Chicago flew on to the Faroes where it dropped a note onto the supporting U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Richmond about the troubled aircraft. The crew having been rescued unhurt, Boston, then on tow, capsized and sank shortly before reaching the Faroes.{{rp|255–263}} Chicago and New Orleans had flown on to Hornafjörður, Iceland, the most northerly point of the circumnavigation (65 deg N).

After a long stay in Reykjavík, Iceland, where they met Italian Antonio Locatelli and his crew, also in the course of a circumnavigation attempt, and there accompanied by five navy vessels and their 2,500 seaman, Chicago, with Smith and Arnold still in the lead, and the New Orleans, with Nelson and Harding, continued for Fredricksdal, Greenland.{{rp|266}} This was to be the longest leg of the entire journey, with those five vessels strung along the route.{{rp|272}} New engines were installed on arrival at the second stop in Greenland, Ivigtut.{{rp|283}}

On 31 August, they reached Labrador, Canada,Haber 1995, pp. 72–73.{{rp|287}} a fuel-pump failure in Chicago having been overcome by four hours of hand pumping by Arnold.{{rp|28}} After the original prototype, now named Boston II, arrived in Pictou, Nova Scotia, the original Boston crew of Wade and Ogden were able to join the other two aircraft to fly on to Boston (where pontoon floats were exchanged for wheels again){{rp|300}} and Washington DC.{{rp|293}}[https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0928.html#article "Fliers At Seattle End World Flight of 27,000 Miles."] The New York Times, 28 September 1924, p. 1. Retrieved: 29 July 2012. After a hero's welcome in the capital, the three Douglas World Cruisers flew to the West Coast, on a celebratory multi-city tour, stopping, on 22 September, at Rockwell Field, San Diego, for new engines{{rp|311}} and then arrived in Santa Monica to a welcoming crowd of at least 100,000 people.{{rp|312}} Their final landing in Seattle was on 28 September 1924.

The trip had taken 363 flying hours 7 minutes, over 175 calendar days, and covered {{convert|26,345|mi}},{{rp|315}} succeeding where the British, Portuguese,{{cite web|url=http://www.clublusitano.com/from-portugal-to-macau/|title=From Portugal to Macau|date=17 April 2018|access-date=10 August 2019|website=Club Lusitano|last=d’Assumpção|first=H A|archive-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509173019/http://www.clublusitano.com/from-portugal-to-macau/|url-status=dead}} French, Italians and Argentinians failed. The Douglas Aircraft Company adopted the motto, "First Around the World – First the World Around".{{#tag:ref|In addition, the Douglas Aircraft Company introduced the logo features three plane circling a globe, which eventually evolved into an aircraft, a missile, and a globe, and was adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation following the merger of Douglas and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967, and then became the basis of the logo of the Boeing Company following its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997.{{citation |url= http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/corpid/ |publisher= Boeing |work= Boeing Trademark Management Group |title= Trademarks and Copyrights: Boeing logo |access-date= 5 July 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120621005913/http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/corpid/ |archive-date= 21 June 2012 |url-status= dead }}{{cite web |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGTCxDFO__c |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211213/fGTCxDFO__c |archive-date=2021-12-13 |url-status=live|website=YouTube |author=Boeing |title= From Bow-Wing to Boeing |access-date= 31 January 2021 }}{{cbignore}}{{citation |url= http://www.mdc.com/version2/history/logo.htm |publisher= McDonnell Douglas |title= McDonnell Douglas Logo History |access-date= 29 November 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/19970605044807/http://www.mdc.com/version2/history/logo.htm |archive-date= 5 June 1997 |url-status= dead }}|group=N}} The American team had greatly increased their chances of success by using several aircraft and pre-positioning large caches of fuel, spare parts, and other support equipment along the route. They often had several US Navy destroyers deployed in support.{{rp|149,154}} At prearranged way points, the World Flight's aircraft had their engines changed five times and new wings fitted twice.

File:First aerial circumnavigation 1924.png

The flight traveled from east to west, beginning in Seattle, Washington, in April 1924 and returning to its start point in September. It flew northwest to Alaska; across northern Pacific islands to Japan and then south Asia; across to Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. The route's most southerly point was Saigon in Vietnam{{rp|175}} (10° N), while the northernmost stop was in Reykjavík, Iceland at 64°08' N. The refueling stops were:{{cite book|title=The First World Flight|url=https://archive.org/details/firstworldflight0000thom|url-access=registration|last=Thomas|first=Lowell|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|date=1925|place=Boston & New York}}{{rp|xxii}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|

• United States: Sand Point, Lake Washington, Seattle, Washington 6 April 1924
• Canada: Seal Cove, Prince Rupert, British Columbia
• Alaska: Sitka, Seward and Chignik
• Aleutian Islands: Dutch Harbor, Atka and Attu
• Soviet Union: Bering Island
• Japan: Paramushiru, Hitokappu, Minato, Lake Kasumigaura, Kushimoto and Kagoshima
• China: Shanghai, Tchinkoen (Qingchuan) Bay, Amoy (Xiamen)
• Hong Kong
• French Indochina (Vietnam): Gulf of Tonkin (Haiphong), Tourane (Da Nang), Huế (Chicago only), and Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)
• Thailand: Bangkok
• Raj Burma: Tavoy (Dawei), Rangoon and Akyab (Sittwe)
• Raj India: Chittagong, Calcutta, Allahabad, Ambala, Multan, Karachi
• Persia: Chabahar, Bandar Abbas and Bushehr
• Iraq: Baghdad
• Syria: Aleppo
• Turkey: Istanbul
• Romania: Bucharest
• Hungary: Budapest
• Austria: Vienna
• France: Strasbourg and Paris
• United Kingdom: Croydon (London); Brough (Yorkshire); Scapa Flow (Kirkwall, Orkney)
• Iceland: Hornafjörður and Reykjavík
• Greenland: Fredricksdal and Ivigtut (Ivittuut)
• Newfoundland and Labrador: Icy Tickle and Hawkes Bay
• Canada: Pictou Harbor, Nova Scotia
• United States: Casco Bay, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; Mitchell Field, New York; Bolling Field, Washington, D.C. Across the U.S. – 14 cities in nine states; and Seattle, Washington: 28 September 1924

}}

At the request of the Smithsonian Institution, the US War Department transferred ownership of Chicago to the museum for display. It made its last flight from Dayton, Ohio, to Washington, D.C., on 25 September 1925. It was almost immediately put on display in the Smithsonian's Arts and Industries Building. In 1974, Chicago was restored under the direction of Walter Roderick,Boyne 1982, p. 18. and transferred to the new National Air and Space Museum building for display in their Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight exhibition gallery.

Beginning in 1957, New Orleans was displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.Ogden 1986, p. 168. The aircraft was on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and was returned in 2005.[http://www.nhm.org/site/explore-exhibits/permanent-exhibits/california-history "Exhibits."] Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Retrieved: 5 July 2012. Since February 2012, New Orleans is at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, California.[http://museumofflying.com/exhibits-features/ "Exhibits & Features."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120711033135/http://museumofflying.com/exhibits-features/ |date=11 July 2012 }} Museum of Flying, Santa Monica Airport, 2012. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

The wreckage of Seattle was recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum.[http://www.alaskaairmuseum.org/flightline/hangar_south.php "South Hangar: Douglas World Cruiser 'Seattle'."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120622074326/http://www.alaskaairmuseum.org/flightline/hangar_south.php |date=22 June 2012 }} Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. Retrieved: 5 July 2012. The original Boston sank in the North Atlantic, and it is thought that the only surviving piece of the original prototype, the Boston II, is the aircraft data plate, now in a private collection, and a scrap of fuselage skin, in the collection of the Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum in Poplar Grove, Illinois.[http://poplargrovewingsandwheels.com/newInstall/museum/featured-artifact.html "Featured Artifact: Fabric from the Boston II Douglas World Cruiser."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801053121/http://poplargrovewingsandwheels.com/newInstall/museum/featured-artifact.html |date=1 August 2012 }} Vintage Wings & Wheels Museum. Retrieved: 5 July 2012.

All six airmen were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by vote of the United States Congress, the first time the award had been made for acts not in war, and they were excused from the prohibition against accepting awards from foreign countries.{{rp|325}}

The best in flight Mackay Trophy for 1924 was awarded to Smith, Arnold, Wade, Nelson and Ogden.{{cite web|url=http://naa.aero/awards/awards-and-trophies/mackay-trophy/mackay-1920-1929-winners|title=Mackay 1920–1929 Recipients – NAA: National Aeronautic Association|website=naa.aero}} Later, Martin was in command of Army aviation units in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. His mechanic Harvey was commissioned and commanded heavy bomb groups during World War II. Nelson rose to the rank of colonel and became one of General Henry Arnold's chief trouble-shooters on the development and operational deployment of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

File:Douglas World Cruise - 8091771042.jpg|No. 1 Seattle, crashed/destroyed, crew survived

File:DWC Chicago at NASM.jpg|No. 2 Chicago, at the National Air and Space Museum

File:Douglas World Cruise - 8091774470.jpg|No. 3 Boston, August 3, 1924; sunk/lost at sea, crew survived

File:DWC "New Orleans".jpg|No. 4 New Orleans, being installed at the Museum of Flying, 2012.

File:CEKSmith.jpg

File:Southern cross.jpg base near Canberra in 1943]]

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world that involved the crossing of the equator twice occurred from 1928 to 1930, and was made using a single aircraft, the Southern Cross, a Fokker F.VII trimotor monoplane crewed by Charles Kingsford Smith (lead pilot), Charles Ulm (relief pilot), James Warner (radio operator), and Harry Lyon (navigator and engineer).Sherman, Stephen. [http://acepilots.com/wwi/pio_ksmith.html "Charles Kingsford Smith: First to Fly Across the Pacific."] acepilots.com, 16 April 2012. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.

After completing the first trans-Pacific crossing on 9 June 1928, flying from Oakland, California to Brisbane, Australia (with stops in Hawaii and Fiji), Kingsford Smith and Ulm spent several months making other long-distance flights across Australia and to New Zealand. They decided to use their trans-Pacific flight as the first leg of a globe-circling flight.Cross 1972, p. 71. They flew the Southern Cross to England in June 1929, then across the Atlantic and North America, returning, in 1930, to Oakland where their 1928 trans-Pacific flight had begun.Cross 1972, p. 74.

Before Kingsford Smith's death in 1935, he donated the Southern Cross to the Commonwealth of Australia, for display in a museum.[http://www.adf-serials.com/aa26.shtml "RAAF Fokker F. VIIB Southern Cross VH-USU."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303201440/http://www.adf-serials.com/aa26.shtml |date=3 March 2016 }} ADF Aircraft Serials. Retrieved: 7 July 2012. The aircraft is preserved in a special glass hangar memorial on Airport Drive, near the International Terminal at Brisbane Airport in Queensland, Australia.

• List of circumnavigations: Aerial
• {{portal-inline|History}}
• {{portal-inline|World}}

{{reflist|group=N}}

{{reflist|2}}

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• Boyne, Walter J. The Aircraft Treasures Of Silver Hill: The Behind-The-Scenes Workshop Of The National Air And Space Museum. New York: Rawson Associates, 1982. {{ISBN|0-89256-216-1}}.
• Bryan, Courtlandt Dixon Barnes. The National Air and Space Museum. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1979. {{ISBN|978-0-810-98126-3}}.
• Cross, Roy. Great Aircraft and Their Pilots. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1972. {{ISBN|978-0-82120-465-8}}.
• Donald, David, ed. Encyclopedia of World Aircraft. Etobicoke, Ontario: Prospero Books, 1997. {{ISBN|1-85605-375-X}}.
• Francillon, René J. McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Since 1920: Volume I. London: Putnam, 1979. {{ISBN|0-87021-428-4}}.
• Haber, Barbara Angle. The National Air and Space Museum. London: Bison Group, 1995. {{ISBN|1-85841-088-6}}.
• Mackworth-Praed, Ben. Aviation: The Pioneer Years. London: Studio Editions, 1990. {{ISBN|1-85170-349-7}}.
• Ogden, Bob. Great Aircraft Collections of the World. New York: Gallery Books, 1986. {{ISBN|1-85627-012-2}}.
• Stoff, Joshua. Transatlantic Flight: A Picture History, 1873–1939. Mineoloa, New York: Dover publications, Inc., 2000. {{ISBN|0-486-40727-6}}.
• Swanborough, F. Gordon and Peter M. Bowers. United States Military Aircraft since 1909. London: Putnam, 1963.
• Wendell, David V. [http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/eiu02/id/7747 "Getting Its Wings: Chicago as the Cradle of Aviation in America."] Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Volume 92, No. 4, Winter 1999/2000, pp. 339–372.
• Will, Gavin. The Big Hop: The North Atlantic Air Race. Portugal Cove-St.Phillips, Newfoundland: Boulder Publications, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-9730271-8-1}}.
• Yenne, Bill. Seaplanes & Flying Boats: A Timeless Collection from Aviation's Golden Age. New York: BCL Press, 2003. {{ISBN|1-932302-03-4}}.
• Haber, Barbara Angle. The National Air and Space Museum. London: Bison Group, 1995. {{ISBN|1-85841-088-6}}.

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|1924 Round The World Flight}}

• [http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Aerospace/Douglas_World_Trip/Aero27.htm The Douglas World Cruiser – Around the World in 175 Days]
• [https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2010/summer/magellans.html The National Archives: Magellans of the Sky]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130702114139/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=751 USAF Museum: World Flight Chronicle]
• [http://www.museumofflying.com/ Santa Monica Museum of Flying]
• [https://www.pbs.org/kcet/chasingthesun/companies/douglas.html Chasing the Sun: Douglas Aircraft, PBS documentary]
• [https://digitalcollections.museumofflight.org/solr-search?q=Douglas+World+Cruiser Douglas World Cruiser photographs at The Museum of Flight Digital Collections]

Category:1924 in aviation

Category:20th-century history of the United States Air Force

Category:Circumnavigations