Today in History: First aerial circumnavigation of the world completed
On September 28, 1924 — 90 years ago today — the first flight around the world was completed. The aerial circumnavigation began on April 6, 1924 from Seattle, Washington with a fleet of 4 planes and ended back in Seattle 175 days later with only 2 of the original planes. The circumnavigation route traveled over or touched 21 countries and 25 states — a total of 57 hops were made.

The flight fleet comprised 4 aircraft acquired by the United States Army Air Service (later to become the Air Force). Each plane was a Douglas torpedo bomber that had been modified to carry extra fuel (by eliminating the bomb bays) and interchangeable landing gear — pontoons for water landings and wheels for normal landings. The 4 planes in the fleet were named after U.S. cities: (1) Seattle, (2) Chicago, (3) Boston, and (4) New Orleans. Two of these planes, Seattle and Boston, were lost during the trip, but their crews survived.

Sources:
•http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/sept-28-1924-first-around-the-world-flights-touch-down-in-seattle/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_circumnavigation
•http://www.firstflightcentennial.org/the-first-flight-around-the-world/
•http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004537.html
•http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=751
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_World_Cruiser
•http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/transportation/id/138
•http://airandspace.si.edu/collections/artifact.cfm?object=nasm_A19250008000

Image credit:
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_aerial_circumnavigation#mediaviewer/File:Aircraft_Chicago;Aero27G6.jpg