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DWC Douglas World Cruiser
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Photo: Robert Deering
1985 National Museum of the USAF Wright-Patterson AFB (FFO) Dayton, Ohio |
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One of the most
sensational avation events of the 1920s was
the Air Service round-the-world flight in
1924. Four Douglas World Cruiser airplanes
departed Seattle, Wash., on April 6, 1924,
heading westward for Asia via Alaska. The
planes encountered the worst type of flying
weather -- excessive head winds, rain, ice,
snow and fog, but by May 9, three had
reached Attu Island in the Aleutians. The
fourth airplane, the
Seattle,
had
crashed into a mountain on April 30 while
flying through fog, but its crew, Maj. F.L.
Martin and Sgt. A.L. Harvey, were uninjured
and walked to safety. The remaining three planes continued on, changing back and forth from pontoons to wheels as determined by whether they were to be flying over land or water. By Aug. 3, they were heading for Iceland from the British Isles when the Liberty engine in the Boston lost all oil pressure, and the plane was forced to land at sea. Unfortunately, high waves damaged the Boston excessively and it had to be sunk. The New Orleans and the Chicago continued westward, arriving in Nova Scotia where the original prototype DWC, named the Boston II, joined them for the remainder of the flight. The three planes reached Seattle on Sept. 28, 1924, completing an aerial trip of approximately 26,000 miles in 371 hours flying time. For their tremendous achievement in flying around the world, the World Flyers were awarded the coveted Mackay Trophy for 1924.
Source:
National Museum of the United States Air
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The Douglas World
Cruiser (DWC) was developed to meet a
requirement from the U.S. Army Air Service
for an aircraft suitable for an attempt at
the first flight around the world. The
Douglas Aircraft Company responded with a
modification of their DT torpedo bomber.
Five of these aircraft were ordered for the
round-the-world flight, one for testing and
training and four for the actual expedition.
The DWC differed from the DT in having a greater fuel capacity for greater range. The cockpits for the pilot and crewman were also located more closely together. Like the DT, the DWC could be fitted with either floats or a conventional landing gear. The four expedition aircraft, named Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, and Seattle, departed Seattle on April 4, 1924 for the expedition around the world. The Seattle crashed into a mountain in Alaska on April 30. The crew, Major Frederick L. Martin and Staff Sergeant Alva L. Harvey, survived and made their way through the wilderness to safety. The other three aircraft continued on through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, relying on a carefully planned logistics system, including pre-positioned spare engines, to keep the aircraft flying. The Boston was forced down while crossing the Atlantic and damaged beyond repair while being towed by a U.S. Navy cruiser. The remaining two aircraft continued across the Atlantic back to the United States, where they were joined by the test aircraft, now christened Boston II. The aircraft returned to their Seattle starting point on September 28, 1924, 27,553 miles (44,342 km) and 175 days since departing. The Chicago is now part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution and the New Orleans is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. The wreckage of the Seattle was recovered and is now on display in the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. The success of the DWC established Douglas Aircraft Company among the major aircraft companies of the world and led it to adopt the motto "First Around the World - First the World Around". The company also adopted a logo that showed aircraft circling a globe. This logo evolved into an aircraft, a rocket, and a globe and was adopted by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation following the merger of Douglas and the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in 1967, and then became the basis of the logo of the Boeing Company following its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas in 1997.
Source: Wikipedia |
