by Mark Ollig
Ferdinand Magellan embarked on a westward voyage across the Atlantic Ocean Sept. 20, 1519, with five ships and 270 crew members, starting from Spain.
He discovered a navigable passage at the southern tip of South America connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, now known as “the Strait of Magellan.
Magellan died in 1521 during a battle on Mactan Island, near the Philippines.
Juan Sebastián Elcano, a navigator on a Spanish ship from the Magellan expedition, assumed command of the journey.
In 1522, the Nao Victoria, the remaining ship from the Magellan expedition, completed the first trip around the world, arriving in Spain Sept. 6.
In Kitty Hawk, NC, 381 years later, the Wright Flyer, an airplane built by Wilbur and Orville Wright, made aviation history.
On Dec. 17, 1903, Orville piloted the Wright Flyer 120 feet above the ground for 12 seconds. It became the world’s first engine-powered airplane.
Louis Blériot, a French aviator, flew his Blériot XI monoplane, equipped with a 25-horsepower engine, across the English Channel from Calais, France, to Dover, England, July 25, 1909.
On Sept. 23, 1913, Rohland Garros successfully flew his French Morane-Saulnier fixed-wing aircraft across the Mediterranean Sea.
Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten Brown flew 15 hours non-stop on the first transatlantic flight in June 1919.
In July 1923, the US Army Air Service announced its intention to fly airplanes around the world.
The Douglas Aircraft Company built four unique planes known as the World Cruisers.
The planes were named after US cities; Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New Orleans.
These aircraft had Liberty V-12 engines that could generate up to 423 horsepower.
Their wingspan measured 50 feet and six inches, while their length was 35 feet and nine inches.
Each World Cruiser weighed 4,380 pounds on wheels, but when equipped with pontoons for oceanic travel, their weight rose to 5,180 pounds.
On April 6, 1924, a group of US Army Air Service pilots took off in their World Cruisers, flying westward from Seattle, WA.
The planes flew up the coast of Canada to Alaska, across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, over the Asian continent and the Middle East, crossing Europe, then flying over the Atlantic Ocean via Iceland, Greenland, and then reaching Newfoundland.
Seattle and Boston crashed during the trip; however, all crew members survived.
Arriving in the Northern Hemisphere, the Chicago and New Orleans planes traveled down the East Coast to Washington, DC, westward across the Allegheny Mountain Range to Dayton, OH, and over Chicago, IL, before heading south towards Dallas, TX.
The planes then crossed the southwest, reaching San Diego, CA.
Traveling up the West Coast, both planes landed from where they started in Seattle, WA, after a 15-day airborne journey covering 26,345 miles, completing the first-ever around-the-world flight Sept. 28, 1924.
While circling the Earth, New Orleans and Chicago maintained an average air speed of 116 mph and reached altitudes of up to two miles.
The front page headline of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune Sept. 29, 1924, announced, “Fliers Complete Globe Trip.” A subheading read, “Only Two of Four Original Planes Finish Schedule.”
On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh completed the first non-stop solo flight from New York City to Paris, France.
The following year, Charles Kingsford Smith and his team flew the first non-stop transpacific flight from the US to Brisbane, Australia, some 9,500 miles, in their Dutch Fokker Trimotor airliner, Southern Cross.
However, the first non-stop flight circling the globe had yet to be achieved.
In 1981, Burt Rutan, an aerospace designer, and his brother Dick Rutan, an aircraft test and fighter pilot, collaborated to build the Model 76 Voyager aircraft.
The 939-pound Voyager utilized every available space to store 7,011 pounds of fuel. It had a wingspan of 111 feet, with a stabilizer wing on the front of the plane’s nose.
Voyager was lightweight, using carbon fiber, tape, and paper coated with epoxy resin.
These materials made the aircraft as light as possible, significantly improving its lift and fuel efficiency.
On Dec. 14, 1986, Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager (unrelated to Chuck Yeager) departed from Edwards Air Force Base in California aboard the Voyager airplane.
Voyager’s flight aimed to circle the earth non-stop without refueling, which had never been done before.
On Dec. 23, 1986, Voyager completed its non-stop flight around the world with 140 pounds of fuel remaining.
We have traveled beyond our planet using spacecraft to explore the moon and our solar system.
NASA still communicates with the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, as they continue to travel through interstellar space.
When talking about space exploration, I can’t help but use a Star Trek analogy.
In the 1994 movie “Star Trek Generations,” retired Captain James T. Kirk is seen on the bridge of the new USS Enterprise-B (NCC-1701-B) starship as it was about to leave Spacedock.
“Captain Kirk, I’d be honored if you’d give the order to get underway,” asked Capt. John Harriman of the USS Enterprise-B.
Kirk briefly paused while looking at the distant, unexplored stars on the main viewer screen before calmly saying, “Take us out.”
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| Pilot Lt. Lowell Smith and co-pilot Lt. Leslie Arnold flying the Chicago airplane (Douglas World Cruiser) around the world in 1924. |