The first aerial circumnavigation of the world was conducted in 1924 by a team of aviators of the United States Army Air Service, the precursor of the United States Air Force. The trip took 175 days, covering over 44,000 kilometres (27,340 mi).
In 1929 Australian Charles Kingsford Smith completed the second circumnavigation of the world by flight, and the first within both hemispheres, including the first trans-Pacific flight to Australia in 1928.
Read more about First Aerial Circumnavigation: U.S. Preparation For Circumnavigation Attempt, Douglas World Cruiser Aircraft and Crew, Douglas World Cruiser Circumnavigation, Itinerary, Survivors, Cross-equator Circumnavigation, Cross-equator Flight
Famous quotes containing the word aerial:
“But with some small portion of real genius and a warm imagination, an author surely may be permitted a little to expand his wings and to wander in the aerial fields of fancy, provided ... that he soar not to such dangerous heights, from whence unplumed he may fall to the ground disgraced, if not disabled from ever rising anymore.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)