‘Best kept secret’ in aviation history gets a once-in-a-century celebration in Seattle

You’ve heard of the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh. But what about the first aviators to successfully complete a flight around the globe? That honor goes to six U.S. Army Air Corps fliers who touched down in Seattle on Sept. 28, 1924. Their achievement predates Lindbergh’s crossing of the Atlantic by three years. Yet, few people know about it.

“It really is Seattle’s best-kept secret in aviation that we played host to the first-ever flight around the world,” said Elisa Law, one of the organizers of a centennial celebration in Seattle aimed at rekindling excitement for the record-breaking flight. The nonprofit that Law directs, Friends of Magnuson Park, and Seattle’s Museum of Flight put on the First World Flight Centennial this (past, 9/27-29) weekend.

In 1924, a team of U.S. Army aviators made a daring six-month hopscotch journey around the earth. Traveling in open-cockpit biplanes made of fabric and wood, they battled arctic storms, survived crashes, fixed wing struts, and splashed down in lagoons full of crocodiles.

They covered nearly 27,000 miles, landed in 22 countries and beat competitors from Britain, France, Portugal and Italy.

Huge crowds flocked to airfields en route, especially on the homestretch from Paris to London, New York, Washington, Santa Monica and finally, Seattle. In that period, they were hailed as conquering heroes — the Magellans of the air.

“The enthusiasm all along the Coast was really remarkable,” wrote Lowell Smith, one of the pilots on the 1924 expedition. “Couples arranged their marriages to coincide with the termination of the world Flight and there was a fashion for a time of wearing beauty patches cut in the silhouette of a Douglas Cruiser [airplane]. They were even naming babies for us.”

So, why did such a momentous milestone fade into the mists of time? Centennial organizer Law has a hunch.

“The people that we remember who do amazing things always seem to be singular individuals – Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh,” Law said. “Because it was a group, four planes and eight fliers, it’s too much to remember all of them. So, even their effort is lost.”

When the biplanes landed in Seattle, they broke their typical V-formation and fanned out so that the wheels of each aircraft touched down at exactly the same time. That way, no individual pilot could claim being the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

Putting the story back on the map

Decades after the fanfare faded from public memory, a few enthusiasts kept the mission’s spirit alive. Perhaps no one has invested more time and heart into reviving the story than Bob and Diane Dempster of Centralia, Washington. The former Boeing workers got interested in the history during their own recreational flight around the world in the mid-1990s.

Back home, they created a nonprofit to build a flyable replica of a Douglas World Cruiser, the modified torpedo bomber used on the 1924 round-the-world journey. A team of volunteers worked for years from Smithsonian blueprints. They restored and installed an authentic Liberty engine and even scavenged a few parts from the Alaska crash site of one of the original aircraft.

The Dempsters, both pilots, planned to replicate the first world flight in their reproduction biplane to build excitement for this year’s centennial. But Russia closed its airspace and the shoot-down risk over the Middle East foiled their trip plans.

“Unfortunately, we were ready, but the world wasn’t,” Bob Dempster said.

The Dempsters participated in the centennial celebration by speaking at the Seattle Museum of Flight about their decades’ long project to revive interest in the 1924 flight.

Descendants of the Army Air Corps fliers also flocked to the Seattle celebrations, including Anneliese Kruger of Twentynine Palms, California. Her dad, Henry Ogden, was a mechanic and co-pilot on the history-making trip.

Growing up, Kruger says few people, including her friends, knew about her father’s role in aviation history. But, that didn’t stop her dad from occasionally dipping into his memories of the first world flight when Kruger needed a nudge to overcome life’s challenges. Now, Kruger hopes the legacy of the around-the-world fliers will inspire a new generation.

“I think we all wish we could do something exciting in our lives that nobody else has done,” she said. “The pioneers of yesteryear give ideas to the kids nowadays, and we need more of that.”

Kruger was in the crowd of hundreds who gathered at the site of the original take-off and landing for the centennial commemorations. The location is now part of a city park and partly redeveloped into government offices. A Navy band played Sousa marches, local politicians and historians gave speeches and vintage aircraft treated the crowds to a flyby.

A once-in-a-century celebration

The Washington State Legislature allocated $527,000 to fund the celebration in hopes of putting the first round-the-world flight back in the pantheon of aviation’s greatest milestones.

The 100th anniversary was also observed on September 22 in Santa Monica, where the original World Cruisers were built by the Douglas Aircraft Company.

Across the country in Virginia Beach, the Military Aviation Museum organized a full day commemoration of the centennial too, including presentations, biplane rides and a DC-3 flyover on Saturday.

Of the two surviving original World Cruisers that circled the globe, one is in storage awaiting restoration by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The other is temporarily off display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., while the Pioneers of Flight gallery is renovated.

The ensuing 100 years witnessed Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier and Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon. So, is it time that the first aviators to circumnavigate Earth again get their due?

“It’s about time they did,” Kruger said.