The business of going around the world had been such an issue ever since the time when seafarers were arguing upon themselves the exact shape of the planet. It all ended up with Ferdinand Magellan’s command of 5 ships of Spanish expeditionary forces which sailed in search of the Spice Islands. With Magellan on the lead ship, the passage which has become an important discovery linking the Atlantic and Pacific was charted on a route which would later bear his name (The Strait of Magellan). After a troublesome sailing that finally led the expedition to the Philippines, Magellan managed a victorious landing at the shores of Homonhon Island only to be killed later by one of the local chieftains at the nearby island, Mactan  who refused his offer of Christianity in exchange for precious goods to be paid to the King of Spain. With Juan Sebastian Elcano leading the returning ship, the Victoria sailed for Spain taking yet another treacherous sailing that completed the circumnavigation course around the world, the first route around the world which was officially established by sea. Starting 10 August 1519 with Magellan on the lead of 5 ships with about 270 men, ending on 6 September 1522, with Elcano as the replacement lead after Magellan’s death taking with him the only ship that remained, Victoria along with 18 surviving crew; it took 3 years and barely a month of treacherous, troublesome and death stricken sailing to circle the globe by sea.

The advent of air travel with the invention of the airplane and the airship ultimately changed the way the world should be travelled around. Here were history’s major record flights to tell about that.

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Douglas World Cruiser (DWC)

The Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) “Chicago” and “New Orleans” were 2 of the 4 planes of the type that took off on 4th April, 1924 from Seattle to set the first flight around the world. 2 aircraft crashed on separate locations along the way and the 2 remained to return to the point of origin at Seattle on 28 September 1924, a flight totalling 175 days. This made a record for the Douglas Aircraft Company which used the above event to boost sales adapting the motto “First around the world-First the world around”. 

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Graf Zeppelin

The Graf Zeppelin was a German built lighter-than-air aircraft (rigid airship) named after German airship pioneer Ferdinand Von Zeppelin, the Graf pertaining to the man’s rank in German nobility as a Count (Graf) .  LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin (complete with the registration marking) apart from its role as a passenger carrying rigid airship embarked on a world record flight as a result of an agreement with Dr. Hugo Eckener, successor of Count Zeppelin in the Zeppelin Company and American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst who offered $100,000 prize for the Graf Zeppelin’s flight around the world and exclusive rights to the story of the flight. With Dr. Eckener who piloted the airship, it took off on 7 August 1929 from Lakehurst, New Jersey in the US and arrived in Friedrichshafen, Germany, took off from Berlin 15 August 1929 and arrived at Tokyo, Japan 19 August 1929. It completed the circuit with the flight from Japan back to Lakehurst, New Jersey that landed on 29 August 1929. The flight established a speed record of 21 days, 7 hours and 34 minutes.

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Lockheed Vega  (Winnie Mae)

Built by Lockheed starting in 1927, Lockheed Vegas built a reputation as a fast, sturdy aircraft design which has accumulated a number of world records including Amelia Earhart’s solo Atlantic flight in August 1928.

On 23 June 1931, Wiley Post took off on a Lockheed Vega (Winnie Mae) from Roosevelt Field in Long Island, New York with a navigator, Harold Gatty on a planned around the world flight with the former’s intention to break the previous record set by the Graf Zeppelin. They completed the flight circuit around the world  on 1 July 1931 establishing a new world record time of 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes.

On 15 July 1933, Post repeated his flight around the world purposely to gain enough funding in opening his aeronautical school.  Doing the flight alone, he relied on a newly installed autopilot device and a radio compass which was on the early stage of its application in aviation. Post landed back at Floyd Bennet’s Field in Brooklyn on 22 July 1933 establishing the first solo flight around the world in the same aircraft he had flown 2 years earlier.

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Boeing B-50 Superfortress (Lucky Lady II)

The B-50 Superfortress was a post war revision of the B-29 Superfortress with a number of improvements. Powered by 4 Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engines, the aircraft took off on the record flight with a team of US Air Force on 27 February 1949 at Forth Worth, Texas with Captain James Gallagher as pilot and a crew of 14. Refuelled 4 times in route on the air by KB-29 tanker planes above,  Azores, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and Hawaii the circuit flight was completed on 2 March 1949. Totalling a flight time of 94 hours, 1 minute at an average speed of  398 km/h (249 mph) it set a new world record for the first non-stop, around the world flight on a fixed-wing aircraft.

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Boeing B-52B Stratofortress

On 16 January 1957, Gen. Archie Old, Jr. of 93rd Bombardment Wing, USAF led 3 heavy B-52B Stratofortress bombers, each powered by eight jet engines on a non-stop flight around the world as a demonstration of the aircrafts’ long range capability (the B-52B derivative entered operational service only in 1955).  Known as Operation Power Flite, the 3 B-52s left Castle Air Force Base in California and circled the globe passing Newfoundland, French Morocco, Saudi Arabia, India, Ceylon, Philippines and Guam extending each aircraft’s range by aerial refueling provided by aerial tankers . The 3 B-52s completed the whole circuit upon landing at March Air Force Base at California 45 hours and 19 minutes later, that was the 18th of January 1957. This established the first non-stop around the world flight of a jet aircraft breaking the previous record held by the B-50 Superfortress 48 hours and 42 minutes faster 8 years afterwards.  

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Voyager Aircraft

The Voyager aircraft  (not the spacecraft) was the brainchild of Burt Rutan constructed from vast experience of building experimental aircraft designs. Referred to as Rutan Voyager or Model  76 Voyager,  (Wikipedia) it was the first aircraft to have flown around the world without refuelling considering its long wing span of  110 ft 8 in (33.80 m)laden with fuel  which could allow it to fly for 216 hours without refuelling. It took off from Edwards Air Force Base on 14 December 1986 piloted by Dick Rutan (Burt Rutan’s younger brother) and Jeana Yeager. Flying westerly at 26,366 statute miles (42,432 km) at an average altitude of 11,000 feet (3.4 km) it set a new world record when it completed the flight around the world upon landing back 9 days, 3 minutes and 44 seconds later, on 23 December 1986.

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Global Flyer

The model 311 Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer was another design by Burt Rutan and manufactured by Scaled Composites purposely for another Around the World record attempt. Virgin Atlantic being the main sponsor thus shared the publicity and has the company name painted on the plane’s fuselage. The plane was a single engine jet with a wing span of 114 feet. The aircraft has 13 fuel tanks making it 83% fuel by weight. On 28 February 2005, Steve Fossett piloted the aircraft taking off from Salina, Kansas on a solo non-stop unrefueled flight around the world landing back after 67 hours and 1 minute in 3 March 2005.

My Other Articles on Aviation:

• End School at 8th Grade Start a Company and Build Airplanes
• Cycle your Way Up: Ever Heard of Human Powered Aircraft?
• Grounded: Some Novel Aircraft that Failed the Market
• Aircrafts that Shaped History