Around the World in 100 Years
In 1924, two Douglas World Cruisers completed the first around-the-world flight.
What has changed on our blue planet in 100 years? Let’s have a look at some of their stops along the way to see the difference!
1924-2024 Virtual World Tour
Check out the interactive route map created by Bob Henderson below. Zoom in to the individual stops and click on the placemarks for historical photographs along the way! Click here for the daily flight log.
UFOs: United Flying Octogenarians!
Bob and Baz, United Flying Octogenarians from New Zealand and PNG, took their own flight around the world in 2024 to commemorate the 1924 flight. They completed their trip on September 28, exactly 100 year after the original fliers.
Read more about their journey at bazflyer.com, check out their blog about the adventure, and retrace their path that was charting in real time with the ZKBAZ tracker.
100-year Time-lapse
Here is a historical photograph showing three of the World Cruisers over New York City in 1924. We’ve added a current image from Google Earth for comparison. That’s quite a difference – imagine what it might look like in another 100 years!
Scroll down for additional time-lapse animations highlighting a century of change.
Click on the button below to see some of the photos we’re still trying to geolocate. Recognise any? Be sure to pass along any tips.
Water World
What does all of this have to do with water and the environment? The flight path took the world cruisers along the Alaskan coast line, and some of the historical photos show glaciers that have succumbed to the effects of 100 years of climate change. The planes were outfitted as seaplanes for much of the journey, so a lot of the footage has harbours, fjords, and other waterways as the backdrop, and the comparison photos show substantial impacts to riverbanks and coastlines.
Not all of the impacts in the meantime have been negative, however. During a recent global water resources webinar, we highlighted positive water quality impacts in some urban rivers since 1924; in that webinar, we also made a crowdsourcing pitch for collecting current photographs at some of the stops to commemorate the 100-year anniversary. View the webinar recording below:
March 17: San Diego and Santa Monica
Clover Field, which is now the Santa Monica Airport, hosted the initial send-off of three Douglas World Cruisers on March 17, 1924. The fourth plane, the New Orleans, was undergoing repairs at Rockwell Field in San Diego and caught up to the rest a few days later.
One of only two planes to successfully complete the circumnavigation, the New Orleans managed to accomplish the feat two days faster than the Chicago due to this delayed start; and despite the notoriety of Santa Monica and Seattle as the officially listed starting points, San Diego’s Rockwell Field is the landmark where this feat was actually achieved on September 22, 1924 (see more time-lapse photos below that date).
The New Orleans was later put on display at Santa Monica’s Museum of Flying, located adjacent to the Santa Monica airport. The plane is currently in storage awaiting restoration efforts by the LA Museum of Natural History, and a new home is being sought for display.
While the Chicago is prominently displayed at the Smithsonian, the New Orleans is in pieces in a warehouse and unfortunately didn’t see the light of day for the centennial. Updates were provided at the Douglas Day event and at commemorative events held for the centennial of the take-off and the completion of the flight in Santa Monica. Based on this article, hopefully some fundraising efforts will see the New Orleans restored soon!
Clover Field (1924) and Santa Monica Airport (2024):
Here are a few additional shots from Santa Monica on the day of departure; zoom in on the Google Map above to see the locations.
March 18: Sacramento
This photo is from a few years after the flight, but here is Mather Field in Sacramento, where the fliers made their first stop:
Mount Shasta:
March 19: Eugene
Three of the planes made a re-fueling stop at Westmoreland Field in Eugene, Oregon, marking another start to the round-the-world loop that was completed when they returned on September 27, the day before the official completion in Seattle.
March 20: Vancouver WA
The fliers made an unexpected stop at the Vancouver Barracks Airfield. The hangars at Pearson Field (renamed in 1925) have been remarkably well preserved. Here are some photos showing Mount Hood in the background:
1925:
2024:
April 6: Seattle
The planes landed at Sand Point Airdrome (now Magnuson Park) in Seattle on March 20. After being outfitted as seaplanes, they took off from Lake Washington on April 6, marking the official start of the first flight around the world. Here is Seattle’s Sand Point Airdrome, with Mount Rainier in the background of the current photo:
The fliers participate in a March 29 1924 Air Circus over the future home of Husky Stadium in anticipation of their departure:
Last view of Mount Rainier for 175 days:
And they’re officially off!
(Well, at least 3 of the 4 planes were off; the photographer’s plane in the 1924 clip below was mistaken for the fourth World Cruiser, which was still stranded on Lake Washington with engine issues and was unknowingly left behind by the others!)
Here’s a photo of the soon-to-be-lost Seattle taken over Seattle shortly after departure:
Thanks to historian Lee Corbin for helping to locate this one!
Flying over the Seattle Yacht Club shortly after departure:
(the clubhouse is still there in the current photo, with Mount Rainier in the background)
Over Portage Bay:
More Seattle time-lapse photos under September 28 (day of the final landing) below.
April 10: Sitka, Alaska
April 19: Dutch Harbor, Alaska
Continuing the journey, but missing the Seattle:
May 4: Atka, Alaska
June 16: Saigon, Vietnam
June 20: Rangoon, Burma
(Yangong, Myanmar)
Note: Comparison photos are elusive for the Middle Eastern and European legs of the journey in July and August due to poorer quality Google Earth imagery and fewer available historical photos.
Of particular note, highlighting some of the tragic conflicts that have occurred along the flight path in the meantime, some of the sites the fliers encountered in Syria appear to have been subject to significant destruction in the meantime.
The fliers timed their arrival in Paris with Bastille Day in 1924. It is interesting to note that on Bastille Day in 2024, final preparations for the Olympic Games were underway.
September 8: Boston to New York City
This photo shows the fliers over Connecticut’s Mianus River on the way to New York City. Note that the highway bridge in the modern photo collapsed in 1983, sending a couple of semi trucks into the river, and had to be rebuilt.
Magellans of the Air includes AI-enhanced colourised renderings of the original images. The 1924 image of the fliers over Manhattan uses the AI image; the original black and white image is used in the time-lapse at the top of this page:
Long Island’s Mitchel Field:
September 14: Chicago
Passing the Washington Park Cricket Field and the University of Chicago on the way to Maywood Field’s US Postal Airport, where the VA hospital still stands today.
September 20: Dallas
Love Field in Dallas, currently the headquarters for Southwest Airlines
September 22: San Diego
Although not celebrated as the official end of the trip, the landing at San Diego actually marked the historical completion of the first aerial circumnavigation, since the New Orleans was serviced at Coronado Island’s Rockwell Field before departing to join the other fliers on March 19, 1924
Coronado used to comprise two islands connected by a tombolo; the bight between them was later filled by the US Army Corps of Engineers as shown in these images:
September 25: San Francisco
Nearing the end, the fliers made a stop at Crissy Field in San Francisco
September 28: Seattle
The final leg is officially complete with the landing at Seattle’s Sand Point Airdrome
If you have any current photos taken anywhere near these stops, let us know by submitting the comment form below, and we’ll send some additional details about the available historical media materials in your area. Check out the photos we’re still trying to geolocate and let us know if you have any tips!
Additional Resources
Check out archived photos, contemporary newspaper articles, daily Instagram posts for each centennial stop, and 2024 celebratory event details at the First World Flight Centennial website:
In addition to constructing a working replica of the Seattle, one of the planes that was lost along the way on the original journey, Bob Dempster has compiled a daily chronicle of the 1924 flight along with a growing list of commemorative events scheduled in 2024. Bob will be posting periodic updates on the 100th anniversary of each stop.
Aviation author Julie Boatman will also be posting updates on her Douglas World Cruiser blog to commemorate each milestone in 2024.
Read a photographic journal of the trip by the Air Force History and Heritage Program:
Read extensive excerpts from historical records of the flight in the article Magellans of the Air:
The book “The First World Flight”, including dozens of photos, has been digitised and made publicly available here:
Check out hundreds of photographs of the journey at alamy.com:
Watch the five-part newsreel produced by the Engineering Division of the US Army in 1924:
There are heaps of additional photographs and newsreels from the stops along the way. If any of the historical photos or newsreels show your part of the planet, let us know how the original footage compares to the view from your current vantage. Considering the spread of our global webinar registration locations shown on the globe below, we’re hoping to get as many accurately geolocated photos as possible!
Be sure to send any comments, questions, or suggestions!
