Douglas went to Los Angeles, but friends and bankers alike could see no future in aviation, and advised him to get out of it. Discouraged but not beaten, he kept on trying. A chance meeting with a wealthy man in a barber shop gave him his starting capital and before long the former midshipman was building planes for the U. S. Navy. In 1924, his Army Douglas World Cruiser circled the globe, but his great airliners still were a dream.
THE U. S. ARMY’S DOUGLAS DWC _CRUISERS_ WERE THE FIRST AIRPLANES TO CIRCLE THE GLOBE.
THE DWC’S WERE POWERED WITH WORLD WAR I TYPE OF _LIBERTY_ WATER-COOLED IN-LINE ENGINES.
THE DOUGLAS DWC WAS NOT A VERY FAST AIRPLANE, BUT IT WAS A STURDY SHIP FOR ITS TIME. IT WAS DESIGNED FOR THE WORLD FLIGHT AND STOOD UP WELL. THE DWC WEIGHED 6,000 POUNDS EMPTY. FULLY LOADED WITH GASOLINE AND OIL, IT WEIGHED 8,200 POUNDS. THE TWO CREW MEMBERS RODE IN SEPARATE, OPEN COCKPITS THE ENGINES WERE THE WEAK SPOT IN THE SHIP. THE FLIGHT PROVED THE NEED FOR BETTER ENGINES.
TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO THE FIRST AROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT WAS A DARING OPERATION. CREW MEMBERS TOOK SPECIAL TRAINING. A WORLD-WIDE GROUND ORGANIZATION WAS SET UP TO SERVICE THE PLANES. THE DWC’S WERE EQUIPPED TO USE EITHER WHEEL OR PONTOON LANDING GEAR.]
It was between April 6 and September 28, 1924, that the first flight around the world was made. Four Douglas Cruisers, each carrying two men, started the flight from Seattle, Washington. A world-wide organization was set up to service the planes as they circled the globe. Two of the planes completed the trip 175 days later. The total distance flown was 26,345 miles and the total flying time was 363 hours, 7 minutes. A third plane was destroyed in a crash in Alaska early in the flight, and the fourth sank after a crash in the Atlantic on the last lap of the trip. The DWC’s used in the flight were powered with 450-horsepower _Liberty_ engines, and the average speed was about 72 miles per hour. This round-the-world flight was truly a daring operation.
In the early twenties the design of the airplane underwent very little change. The biplane with an enclosed fuselage remained standard in both military and civil aircraft. With the exception of a few Navy flying boats, the biplane was a two-place plane capable of carrying the pilot and one passenger, or 300 pounds of cargo or mail. There were some attempts at streamlining to eliminate drag, but they consisted mainly of using fewer wing struts and wire bracings.