First Aerial Combat: Wright Brothers Duel

The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was completed in 1924 by four aviators from an eight-man team of the United States Army Air Service, the precursor of the United States Air Force.^¹ The 175-day journey from April to September covered over 26,345 miles (42,398 km).^¹ The team generally traveled east to west, around the northern Pacific Rim, through to South Asia and Europe and back to Seattle's Sand Point Airfield in the United States.^¹ Airmen Lowell H. Smith and Leslie P. Arnold, and Erik H. Nelson and John Harding Jr. made the trip in two single-engined open-cockpit Douglas World Cruisers (DWC) configured as floatplanes for most of the journey.^¹ Lead aircraft Chicago, and the New Orleans completed the expedition.^¹ Four more flyers in two additional DWC began the journey but their aircraft crashed or were forced down.^¹ All airmen survived. They were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, and the flight won the Mackay Trophy aviation award for 1924.^¹